On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Russia and China convened on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers' discussions in Laos, as reported by Moscow and AFP correspondents.
The three-day assembly of the 10-nation ASEAN group commenced in the capital, Vientiane, on the same day, with significant focus on the South China Sea and the ongoing conflict in Myanmar. According to Russia's foreign ministry, Sergei Lavrov engaged in discussions with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during this event.
A timetable for the Thursday session, accessed by AFP, indicated that Lavrov was scheduled to participate in a 40-minute 'ministerial meeting' with Wang. Lavrov departed the location at 7:15 pm without offering any remarks on the content of the meeting. China and Russia share a strong political and economic alliance, with NATO members labeling Beijing as a 'decisive enabler' of Moscow's conflict in Ukraine.
Their encounter followed Wang's discussions in China with Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba. Prior to a meeting with the foreign ministers of China and Laos, Lavrov expressed that ASEAN is 'one of the essential elements of a new, more just multipolar world order' and must 'ensure a stable and secure development, outside the blocs, of the Asia-Pacific region.'
Foreign ministers from Canada, India, and the United Kingdom also arrived in Vientiane to partake in the talks as dialogue partners, according to AFP journalists. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is anticipated to join as well. ASEAN ministers were in the process of formulating a unified stance on the civil war in member state Myanmar, as disclosed by a Southeast Asian diplomat present at the talks.
A draft ASEAN communiqué viewed by AFP 'strongly condemned' the persistent violence initiated by the 2021 military coup, which has thrown the country into chaos. The junta has faced difficulties in suppressing armed resistance against its coup and has been excluded from high-level ASEAN meetings due to its suppression of dissent. Myanmar's military has shown a willingness to re-engage diplomatically, signaling a 'weakened position,' according to the diplomatic source.
An ethnic minority armed group announced on Thursday that its fighters had seized a town and a military regional command in northern Shan state, a claim the junta refuted. Indonesia's foreign minister criticized the junta's reluctance to cooperate with a regional peace plan to address the crisis caused by its coup.
Recent clashes between Philippine and Chinese vessels at contentious reefs in the South China Sea are also on the ASEAN agenda. China's claim to the waterway, through which trillions of dollars of trade pass annually, is almost total despite an international court ruling that its claim lacks legal basis. The Philippines is attempting to include a reference to injuries sustained by its people in the anticipated joint communique.
