A summit with Southeast Asian leaders organized and hosted by US President Joe Biden concluded at the White House on Friday with a group statement that omitted any condemnation of “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, Bloomberg reports.
The nations participating in the summit, called the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, issued a statement calling for the “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine. The countries said they “reaffirm our respect for sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.”
But the statement did not use the words “Russia,” “war” or “invasion.” The Kremlin refuses to describe its invasion of Ukraine as a war, instead calling it a “special military operation.” Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, according to estimates by Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials, and Ukrainian cities have suffered widespread destruction from airstrikes as well as artillery and missile barrages.
Biden has sought to rally US allies in support of Ukraine’s defense, and has had success in Europe, where most NATO countries have supplied weaponry and other material to Kyiv’s forces.
But ASEAN’s membership includes nations that are warier of directly criticizing Russia. Indonesia, which will host the Group of 20 summit later this year, has refused to exclude Vladimir Putin from the gathering and is instead extending invitations to both the Russian leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Much of the ASEAN summit was conducted behind closed doors, so it wasn’t clear to what extent the Ukraine portion of the joint statement was debated.
Biden aides didn’t expect the Southeast Asian nations to weigh in on Russia’s attack on a European nation -- and the US considered it a step forward that they called for a peaceful resolution and stressed Ukraine’s territorial integrity, a senior administration official said.
