JAKARTA: Indonesia warned leaders including US Vice-President Kamala Harris, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov against sharpening rivalries as they wrapped up an East Asia summit in Jakarta on Thursday.
The meeting brought Washington and Beijing into contact a day after Li warned major powers must manage differences to avoid a "new Cold War", and ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi this week that Chinese President Xi Jinping will miss.
Interactions between the officials from the world's top two economies are being closely watched as they seek to control tensions that risk flaring anew over issues ranging.
"Every leader has an equal responsibility to not create new conflicts, to not create new tensions, and at the same time we also have a responsibility to lower heated tensions," Indonesian President Joko Widodo, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said in closing remarks.
"I can guarantee you that if we are not able to manage differences, we will be destroyed."
Thursday's 18-nation summit was the first time top US and Russian officials have sat around the same table in almost two months, after US and European officials condemned Lavrov at a July ministerial meeting over Russia's attack of Ukraine.
Lavrov spoke of the risks of the "militarisation of East Asia", accusing the Nato alliance of moving into the region, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
A chair statement released by Indonesia said each country "reiterated our national positions" on the Ukraine war in the meeting and "reaffirmed our shared commitment to safeguarding and promoting peace, security and stability in the South China Sea".
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese leader Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Canada's Justin Trudeau and Australian premier Anthony Albanese all attended the summit, as well as ASEAN leaders.
While the gathering can bring major players together, its ability to help resolve a range of regional and global disputes is limited, experts say.
"It has been turned into a forum for talking points," said Aaron Connelly, senior fellow at Singapore-based think tank IISS.
Thursday's meeting was more geopolitical in scope but big powers used earlier talks in Jakarta to shore up alliances and lobby the Southeast Asian bloc.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before he met ASEAN leaders on Thursday that hopes of a return to democracy in Myanmar were being squashed. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
