WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet virtually with Southeast Asian officials every day next week, a senior state department official said on Saturday , as Washington seeks to show the region it’s a US priority while also addressing the crisis in Myanmar.
In recent years top US officials have not always attended ASEAN meetings and have sometimes sent more junior officials to the region's summits. But that has been partly addressed by recent visits to the region. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman visited Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand in May and June, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Vietnam and the Philippines this week, and Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit Singapore and Vietnam."That steady flow of high-level engagement is going to pay dividends.
On Sunday, the United States shipped 3 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam and it has sent doses to other Southeast Asian countries too, but an agreement it reached in March with Japan and Australia and India to provide a billion doses to the region stalled due to an Indian export ban
Skinny Pompeo can forget about SEA backing USA against China , we will not stand either side .