U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced hope Thursday for cooperation with Thailand and Malaysia after recent turbulence as he met their prime ministers at an Asia summit.
In a shift of focus after exhaustive diplomacy on the Middle East crisis, Blinken is representing the United States in Laos at the annual East Asia Summit, which President Joe Biden is skipping for the second straight year.
Blinken met Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 38-year-old heir of a political dynasty who took over a month ago after her predecessor was ousted and the main opposition party dissolved.
Blinken said the United States hoped to work with Shinawatra to “focus on things that we can do to better the lives of our people,” including on the economy, security and climate change.
“The two countries have such an extraordinary history together, and we simply want to build on it,” Blinken told her.
Shinawatra told Blinken of northern Thailand’s recent deadly floods and voiced support for long-term relations with the United States.
Thailand is the oldest U.S. ally in Asia, but Washington has repeatedly criticized its record on democracy, although usually gently.
The State Department voiced alarm in August after a Thai court dissolved the reformist Move Forward Party and banned from politics the kingdom’s most popular politician, Pita Limjaroenrat.
Blinken, wearing a dark blue, traditional Laotian jacket, later met separately with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has been a vocal critic of U.S. support for Israel.
Neither mentioned the Middle East in brief remarks in the presence of reporters, with Blinken instead noting that the United States is the top foreign investor in Malaysia.
“I think this is a tremendous sign of both trust and confidence, because the investments don’t happen unless there’s tremendous confidence in the country,” Blinken told Anwar.
U.S. officials privately say that they understand the political pressure in the Muslim-majority country and that they seek a cooperative relationship with Anwar, who enjoyed strong advocacy from Washington when he was controversially imprisoned.
Thailand has taken a lead at the Laos summit in seeking diplomatic progress on the crisis engulfing its neighbor Myanmar, whose military junta sent a representative to a top-level Southeast Asian gathering for the first time in more than three years.
The United States, while backing diplomatic efforts, said it would press for sustained pressure on the junta, seeing no progress on key concerns such as freeing political prisoners and reducing violence.
Blinken, who met two weeks ago with his Chinese counterpart in New York, will also back efforts by Southeast Asia to raise concerns with Beijing about its actions in the South China Sea.
The summit marks a rare occasion in which Blinken is in the same room as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but no talks between the two are expected.
The Biden administration, including presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, has ruled out talks with Russia on its invasion of Ukraine without involving Kyiv.
