U.S. President Joe Biden is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this weekend for meetings with Southeast and East Asian leaders, as the region faces a worsening violent crisis in Myanmar, and ongoing threats from North Korea.
“The president will use this opportunity to discuss how we can coordinate more closely to continue to impose costs and raise pressure on the junta in Naypyidaw as they continue to take steps that repress and oppress their citizenry and move that country further away rather than closer to the democratic path it was on before the coup,” Jake Sullivan, U.S. national security adviser, told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Phnom Penh on Saturday, referring to the February 2021 military takeover in Myanmar.
Biden landed Saturday morning local time after a brief stop in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the United Nations Climate Conference known as COP27.
In Phnom Penh, he will participate in a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in the East Asia Summit, which includes the 10 ASEAN countries and dialogue partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
Biden heads to Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday for the Group of 20 summit with leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies.
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