ASEAN Summit Convenes in Indonesia

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia, the strengthening alliance between Russia and North Korea, and the first-ever Africa Climate Summit in Kenya.

Indonesia is hosting the three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit this week. On Tuesday, leaders and officials from 10 countries convened in Jakarta to discuss regional security, territorial sovereignty, and growing animosity between the world’s two largest superpowers: the United States and China. ASEAN—whose members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—represents around 650 million people and more than $2.9 trillion in GDP.

Traditionally, the bloc had preached a policy of nonalignment due to strained loyalties between its biggest security partner, the United States, and its biggest economic partner, China. But recent foreign-policy challenges have tested that practice.

At the top of ASEAN’s agenda this week is the security crisis that has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when its military overthrew the country’s quasi-democratic government and imprisoned many top leaders, including former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as thousands of other critics. On Tuesday, reports emerged that the ruling junta had denied Aung San Suu Kyi’s request to see an outside physician for her ailing health. The military-led government was set to chair ASEAN in 2026, but the bloc announced on Tuesday that the Philippines would lead the grouping instead. Since the coup, ASEAN has pushed for a five-point peace plan that would end violence in Myanmar, catalyze peace talks between the junta and its opponents, and deliver humanitarian aid.

However, junta-attended dialogues hosted by Thailand and Cambodia have divided the bloc’s approach to the nation’s conflict. Specifically, Thailand and Cambodia, alongside China, have embraced the junta rather than calling for its ouster—while the rest of the bloc suspended Myanmar’s top generals from participating in this week’s ASEAN meetings.

Myanmar isn’t the only regional crisis limiting ASEAN’s effectiveness. Internal disagreements over China have curtailed the bloc’s ability to assert its power. Last week, Beijing released a new map that defined almost all of the South China Sea as under its sovereignty. Numerous ASEAN members—including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam—denounced China’s actions. However, growing Chinese investment in the region, specifically through its Belt and Road Initiative, has hindered the bloc’s willingness to collectively counter rising Chinese aggression.

The bloc’s inability to agree on foreign-policy next steps has damaged its international reputation. Most significantly, major leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping chose not to attend this year’s summit. Instead, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will take their places. “We can complain all we want about other countries not respecting us or not coming to our summits,” former Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said. “But ultimately, it is actually a point of reflection.”

Biden’s decision to skip this week’s summit was particularly humiliating for ASEAN because the U.S. president will be in the region later this week. On Thursday, Biden heads to India for the G-20 summit; he will then visit rising economic power Vietnam on Sunday. Despite its seeming deprioritization of ASEAN, the White House has been quick to reaffirm Washington’s interests in Southeast Asia, pointing to Biden’s creation of the first U.S.-hosted summit with ASEAN leaders last year. “It’s just impossible to look at the record that this administration has put forward and say that we are somehow walking away” from the region, White House spokesperson John Kirby said.

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Wednesday, Sept. 6: The three-day Africa Climate Summit concludes in Kenya.

Mexico’s ruling Morena party announces its presidential candidate for next year’s general election.

Wednesday, Sept. 6, to Thursday, Sept. 7: Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi pays a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia.

Wednesday, Sept. 6, to Friday, Sept. 8: NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana pays a three-day visit to Israel.

Thursday, Sept. 7: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hosts Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani.

Friday, Sept. 8, to Saturday, Sept. 9: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visits Colombia.

Hayashi pays a two-day visit to Poland.

Saturday, Sept. 9: The Maldives holds its presidential election.

Saturday, Sept. 9, to Sunday, Sept. 10: India hosts the annual G-20 summit.

Sunday, Sept. 10: Elections are held in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.

Sunday, Sept. 10, to Monday, Sept. 11: López Obrador visits Chile.

U.S. President Joe Biden visits Vietnam.

Renewing friendships. Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently looking to shore up his alliances. On Monday, U.S. officials announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would travel to Russia to attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Sept. 10-13. The Kremlin has not confirmed the trip’s schedule or attendance list. While there, Putin is expected to discuss North Korean weaponry shipments to help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, and Kim would seek advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines. This would be Kim’s second time visiting Russia, the first occurring in 2019.

Russia’s other negotiations with friends have proved less fruitful. Turkish attempts to negotiate a Russian return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed for the safe transportation of Russian and Ukrainian grain out of both countries amid their ongoing war, failed on Monday, with Putin saying he will not rejoin the deal unless restrictions on Russia’s exports are lifted. Moscow left the pact on July 17. Since then, Russian air attacks on Ukrainian ports have destroyed thousands of tons of grain, leaving millions of people around the world in need of food aid.

Africa’s climate advancements. The first-ever Africa Climate Summit commenced in Nairobi on Monday. For four days, African leaders will discuss renewable energy, conservation efforts, sustainable infrastructure, and the rising threat of environmental disasters. This year alone, North Africa faced extreme heat waves, the Horn of Africa its worst drought in 40 years, and the Sahel intense flooding from a record-breaking monsoon season. “Africa is responsible for less than 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. “But it is the continent which is the least able to cope with the negative impacts of climate change.”

To combat this, Kenyan President William Ruto pledged to increase the continent’s carbon credit production nineteenfold by 2030. “We must see in green growth not just a climate imperative but also a fountain of multibillion-dollar economic opportunities that Africa and the world is primed to capitalize,” Ruto said. Already, the United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that it would invest $4.5 billion in clean energy projects for Africa.

Kicked to the regional curb. The Economic Community of Central African States suspended Gabon’s membership on Tuesday after a coup last Wednesday ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba following his controversial reelection win. The regional body’s decision came a day after Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema, the country’s junta leader, was sworn in as the nation’s transitional leader. Bongo remains under house arrest, and a timeline for new elections is still unknown.

Gabon’s coup was the latest in a string of military-led oustings to hit the continent since 2020, with the most recent in Niger on July 26. “Niger was seen as a port in the storm in a region beset by a growing surge in terrorism and an epidemic of coups that had toppled governments all around it,” FP’s Robbie Gramer wrote.

Prince Harry is saying no to royals and yes to rhinos. On Monday, the nonprofit organization African Parks, of which Harry serves as president, bought the world’s largest rhino farm. Platinum Rhino, based in South Africa, is home to 2,000 white rhinos and aims to protect the endangered species from illegal poaching. After no other buyers had stepped up to fund the philanthropic project, whose millionaire owner is struggling to keep the farm afloat, African Parks purchased it with support from the South African government and other conservation groups. The organization plans to reintroduce farmed rhinos into the wild over the next 10 years.