Phnom Penh: US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that India is one of the close partners of the US. On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister S. Blinken’s response was during the meeting with Jaya Shankar. An open and free Indo-Pacific region, the crisis in Sri Lanka, etc. were discussed by both of them.
After the meeting with ASEAN countries, Jaishankar stated that India and ASEAN countries have strong common positions on the Indo-Pacific, fight against terrorism, Ukraine and Myanmar issues. ASEAN countries condemned the lack of progress in efforts to restore peace in Myanmar.
At the same time, Chinese anger towards Taiwan was also on display at the ASEAN Summit. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi boycotted Thursday’s summit dinner. The reason was not specified. Apart from Jaishankar and Blinken, foreign ministers including Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also attended the banquet.
It is reported that Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov left the room while Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi was speaking during the summit yesterday. Wang Yi had canceled a meeting with Hayashi scheduled for Thursday after he criticized them on the Taiwan issue.