BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) — The United States and China wrestled for influence in Southeast Asia on Wednesday as regional leaders opened an annual summit where the Chinese looked to take advantage of the absence of U.S. President Barack Obama to showcase their rising global clout.
Gathering in tiny, oil-rich Brunei, the leaders of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations met first together before holding group discussions with their non-member partners, including the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and India. All are seeking a greater presence in the region, but the United States and China are the two heavyweights and have long been jostling for position, even as they publicly deny rivalry and competition.
Although its annual meeting is often derided for being more talk than action, ASEAN and its 10 nations are a prized catch politically and economically in the rivalry between a rising China and a United States that has been trying to reassert dominance in the region of more than half a billion people.
Filling in for Obama, as he did earlier this week at an Asia-Pacific economic conference in Indonesia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought to highlight America's decades-long partnership with the region and urged the ASEAN members to stand united in their efforts to blunt China's increasing assertiveness in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Several ASEAN nations, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, have sought U.S. support in standing up to China.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang, meanwhile, spoke of major new Chinese investment and development initiatives. When it came to the South China Sea, he essentially told the ASEAN leaders that the United States should butt out.
"We all agree the disputes in the South China Sea should be addressed in consultation and in negotiations with the parties directly concerned," Li said in his opening remarks to the ASEAN-China meeting. That meeting, scheduled immediately before the ASEAN-U.S. event, went on well past its scheduled duration, forcing Kerry to cool his heels at a Brunei government guest house for nearly an hour.
When his meeting did begin, Kerry felt obliged, as he had in Indonesia, to open his comments with an apology for Obama's absence and a vow that the United States would remain deeply involved in the Asia-Pacific.
"I assure you that these events in Washington are moment in politics and not more than that," he said, referring to the government shutdown that kept Obama at home. "The partnership that we share with ASEAN remains a top priority for the Obama administration."
"Strengthening those ties on security issues, economic issues and more ... (is) a critical part of President Obama's rebalance to Asia," Kerry added. "That rebalance is a commitment. It is there to stay and it will continue into the future.