President Joe Biden will carry messages on China and Russia as he travels to Africa and Asia to attend a series of summits, the last of which the leaders of the two nations are set to attend, according to senior U.S. administration officials.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, three senior administration officials said that Biden was set to leave for a three-leg trip involving summits in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Following his address to the ongoing United Nations (U.N.) Climate Change Conference, also known as the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), in Sharm el-Sheikh and a bilateral meeting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Biden will next attend the annual U.S.-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh.
One senior administration official said Biden was set to meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and discuss the $200 million in funding he's announced in the region over the past year in a number of areas, "including trying to step up our engagement in the maritime domain."
The official linked this initiative directly to the administration's broader efforts to focus on the "Indo-Pacific" region, something highlighted in the National Security Strategy released last month. The official then, without referencing China by name, previewed discussions on areas in which Washington has openly challenged Beijing, including on territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the contested island of Taiwan.
"I think that we also want to highlight the enduring commitment to the rules-based international order, including in the South China Sea, as well as talk about the importance of peace and stability throughout the region, including, of course, across the Taiwan Strait."
Biden will then head to Bali, Indonesia, to meet with President Joko Widodo and attend the G20 summit gathering most of the world's largest economies.
Specifically discussing Biden's time at the high-profile summit to be held in Bali, another senior administration official said that "G20 leaders will focus on a broad, in-depth agenda over the course of their few days together, and I can guarantee you that the United States will show up and be at the table."
The official took aim directly at Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, a conflict that has spurred an array of Western-led sanctions against Moscow and spikes in both food and energy costs across the globe.
"We will be unapologetic in calling out Russia, and we will also work closely with our partners to address the impact of the war," the official said.
And in line with "the president's affirmative agenda," the official outlined three categories Biden would pursue. The first "is working to address the immediate impacts on Russia's war on the global economy," especially "food security and energy security," the second was "investing in the inclusive economies of the future," including on ambitious infrastructure projects and the third involved "steps we can take to build a new economic ecosystem where every nation gets a fair shot," in which debt and pandemic preparedness would be discussed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were both set to also participate in the G20 summit, though Widodo said Tuesday the Russian leader may opt to attend via virtual link.
The senior administration officials on Tuesday's call declined to preview plans as to whether or not Biden would opt to set up a bilateral meeting with Xi in Indonesia and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that she had no announcement on the two leaders' efforts in June to set up a meeting. She did note, however, that Biden made clear he had no intention of meeting with Putin at the G20.
The series of summits came at a time of heightened geopolitical competition between Washington and two powers it has designated its top challengers on the world stage. And in one way or another all three destinations were tied to this bout for influence.
Both Cambodia and Egypt are dialogue partners to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in September. The security bloc is widely seen as led by China and Russia and also includes India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and, most recently, Iran, as full-time members, with other dialogue partners being Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Turkey and observers being Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.
Egypt and Indonesia have also reportedly expressed interest in joining another group counting China and Russia as members, BRICS, an informal economic alliance known by the acronym of its core members, which also include Brazil, India and South Africa. Like the SCO, BRICS has sought to expand its membership to a number of non-Western countries, also including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Neither Cambodia, Egypt nor Indonesia have joined in on extensive sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine and all three governments have continued to discuss expanding relations with Moscow in various sectors.
Xi has also broadened China's inroads among the trio.
Outgoing Chinese Premier Li Keqiang left for Cambodia on Tuesday for a trio of summits, including the East Asia Summit to be attended by Biden, as well as the China-ASEAN Summit and ASEAN Plus Three Summit that will include China as well as U.S. allies Japan and South Korea. Xi will also attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering that Biden was set to miss later this month and was reportedly in the process of planning a trip to Saudi Arabia in December, when the first-ever China-Arab Summit was set to be held including Egypt among other Arab states.
Officials from Beijing and Washington have traded words even before Biden began his trip, with climate envoy John Kerry telling The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that he spoke with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua on the sidelines of the COP27.
"We need to be talking to each other because we're the two biggest economies in the world and the two biggest emitters," Kerry said, adding that "we have a common interest in working together to try to reduce emissions."
And he appeared to hold out hope for progress at the G20 summit in Bali, even as plans for a Biden-Xi encounter remained unconfirmed.
"It's conceivable that when they meet in Bali," Kerry said, "something may break through."
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Based in his hometown of Staten Island, New York City, Tom O'Connor is an award-winning Senior Writer of Foreign Policy ... Read more
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