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BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived Thursday in Thailand, the place she plans to affirm America’s dedication to Southeast Asia and drive dwelling the message that the area can rely on america.
Harris’ go to for a two-day Asia Pacific Financial Cooperation summit comes simply after U.S. President Joe Biden attended a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia and Group of 20 conferences in Indonesia.
She and different APEC leaders are anticipated to debate the Ukraine conflict, hovering inflation, meals and power shortages and a extra assertive China. Chinese language President Xi Jinping can also be attending the summit, which is happening in a closely guarded venue in Bangkok.
Harris is standing in for Biden, who returned to Washington to host his granddaughter’s marriage ceremony on the White Home.
A senior U.S. administration official stated the journeys to Southeast Asia by Biden and Harris present the deepening of America’s engagement with the area, and that it’s a pal and accomplice that may be counted on. The official spoke on situation of anonymity with a view to converse extra freely.
Harris can even ship a speech to a enterprise convention on the summit sidelines. Officers stated she is going to define priorities for subsequent yr’s APEC summit, which the U.S. will host.
Leaders of the 21 nations and territories in APEC, whose official mission is to advertise regional financial integration, are assembly formally in closed-door classes Friday and Saturday. Most of APEC’s work is technical and incremental, carried out by senior officers and Cupboard ministers, masking areas resembling commerce, tourism, forestry, well being, meals, safety, small and medium-size enterprises and girls’s empowerment.
Over the weekend, Harris will maintain talks with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha which might be anticipated to give attention to increasing cooperation on local weather change, clear power and sustainable improvement. They could additionally talk about the state of affairs in Myanmar, the place violence has escalated because the navy seized energy final yr.
She is going to host a roundtable dialogue with activists and enterprise leaders on local weather change and the Mekong area earlier than departing for the Philippines.
Biden held extremely anticipated talks with Chinese language President Xi through the G-20 summit earlier this week through which they tried to handle their variations, together with over Taiwan, which China claims as its personal territory. They expressed a “shared perception” that the use and even the specter of use of nuclear weapons within the Ukraine conflict was “completely unacceptable,” Biden stated.
The White Home stated in addition they agreed to renew cooperation on a spread of shared world challenges together with local weather change, well being and meals stability. Beijing had reduce off such contacts in protest after Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.
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Related Press journalist Christopher Megerian in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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