U.S. President Joe Biden is unlikely to attend summits with Southeast Asian leaders in Jakarta next month, multiple sources told Reuters, an absence that would raise questions about U.S. commitment to a region vital in its efforts to push back against China's expanding influence.
Biden is due to attend a Sept. 9-10 G20 summit in India and said on Tuesday he plans to visit an important emerging Southeast Asian partner Vietnam "shortly", but his presence at the Sept. 4-7 summits of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations is in significant doubt.
White House spokespersons did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sources said Biden's schedule for Asia is not official until it has been announced and could change. Sources said Biden was expected to send Vice President Kamala Harris in his place. Harris, the first Asian American vice president, has conducted diplomacy in the region before.by a serving U.S. president to Papua New Guinea in May and a subsequent planned visit to Australia because he was working to close a deal with lawmakers to resolve the U.S. debt ceiling crisis.
"It will be viewed as another let down by the region," said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate with the Southeast Asia program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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