Washington

United States President Joe Biden will host a special in-person summit with ASEAN leaders on May 12-13, a White House statement said Saturday (local time).

"The Special Summit will demonstrate the United States' enduring commitment to ASEAN, recognizing its central role in delivering sustainable solutions to the region's most pressing challenges, and commemorate 45 years of US-Asean relations," the statement by White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

According to Psaki, President Biden will host the Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the aforementioned date as the summit will commemorate 45 years of US-ASEAN relations. "It will build on President Biden's participation in the October 2021 US-ASEAN Summit, where the president announced $102 million in new initiatives to expand our engagement with ASEAN on COVID-19 recovery and health security, fighting the climate crisis, stimulating broad-based economic growth, promoting gender equality, and deepening people-to-people ties.

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"It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner in Southeast Asia. Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, secure, connected, and resilient," She said. The summit is being held amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which has entered the 51st straight day. The summit might witness deliberations on the situation in Ukraine and Europe.