WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will stress the central regional role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in a virtual meeting with the bloc’s foreign ministers on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
The meeting with the 10-member bloc will be the first since the Biden administration took office in January and comes amid concerns among diplomats and others that Washington has not been paying sufficient attention to a region that is crucial to its regional strategy to counter an increasingly powerful China.
Earlier this month, the White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific region, Kurt Campbell, said the United …
Keep on reading: Blinken to stress ASEAN’s central role in ministerial meeting