Although no delegates attended the first summit in Paris in 2022, Washington sent a high-level delegation led by U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet to the second forum in Stockholm last year. dispatched.
The EU did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation for the contempt.
Britain was also removed from the invitation list. Last year, the former EU member sent his junior minister of state, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, to Stockholm.
Brussels is keeping the guest list a closely guarded secret for now. A senior EU official said only records of attendees, not invitees, would be released.
One European diplomat suggested that the European Union, which aims to build bridges with countries across the Pacific Islands, East Africa and Asia, did not want to be seen as “anti-China.”
EU fails to win support in Southeast Asia over Ukraine war
EU fails to win support in Southeast Asia over Ukraine war
However, EU officials acknowledged that China had not been invited for the third year in a row, saying Beijing was “not pursuing engagement with partners in line with the Indo-Pacific concept.”
“I have never heard China talk about the Indo-Pacific as a concept that it wants to engage with,” the official said. “There are many forms in which we engage with China across the board.”
The Forum faces stiff competition for the spotlight in the Belgian capital this week.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine intensifies towards its second anniversary, EU leaders will try to persuade Hungary on Thursday to lift its veto and further increase EU funding for Kiev. On Saturday, the bloc’s foreign ministers will also gather for twice-a-year informal meetings known as Zimnihi.
Between these two events, three events will take place in the Indo-Pacific region. Ministers from Pacific island countries are scheduled to attend the European Parliament on Thursday. The Indo-Pacific Forum will be held on Friday morning, followed by a dinner later that day with foreign ministers from the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
This will be the most-watched EU-ASEAN meeting since the December 2022 summit. A draft joint statement released after the summit reuses much of the language on controversial issues from that meeting.
The draft, which was said to have been agreed upon by both sides, states that “most member states strongly condemn the war in Ukraine and stress that it is causing untold human suffering,” but does not include Moscow’s name. I did not go so far as to mention it. He added that there were also “different views and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions.”
The draft does not even mention Taiwan by name. The document calls on parties to the South China Sea to “exercise restraint in the conduct of all activities” and “encourages all states to avoid unilateral actions that endanger regional peace, security and stability.” ”.
Joint documents on thorny issues such as Gaza, Myanmar and North Korea had not yet been agreed by Tuesday afternoon. ASEAN negotiators had proposed calling for a “permanent ceasefire” in the Middle East, but it was unclear whether the text would be agreed upon.
Despite their perceived disdain for Washington, EU and US officials met in the US capital on Tuesday for a slimmed-down version of the Trade and Technical Council.
EU will join US to ‘steal cutting-edge chips from China’, official says
EU will join US to ‘steal cutting-edge chips from China’, official says
EU trade representative Valdis Dombrovskis warned in a speech to US companies ahead of the council meeting that weakening the global trade structure would only benefit US rivals.
“A trading system divided based on power relations will harm everyone and benefit no one, except perhaps China,” he said.
“If Western countries, including the United States, want to maintain a rules-based world order and balance Chinese influence in particular, they have no choice but to strengthen their transatlantic leadership in these arenas.”