Jakarta: Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, stated on Friday that ASEAN cannot act as a stand-in for other nations as US-China tensions over issues in the Asia-Pacific region rise.

Foreign ministers from the Southeast Asian region have gathered in Jakarta for discussions on regional issues, including the crisis in Myanmar, where China is the main ally of the junta there, and the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely.

As a result of disagreements over the waterway, some Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members now oppose Beijing, which has increased support for US opposition to China's increasing assertiveness. Some people support Beijing.

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International law must be consistently upheld, and ASEAN cannot serve as a rival or a proxy for any nation, Widodo told the ministers.

"We in ASEAN are committed to enhancing ASEAN's unity, stability, and centrality to safeguard the region's peace and stability."
The two largest economies in the world are currently at odds over a number of issues, including China's drills near Taiwan's independence and broad US export restrictions on advanced semiconductors.

Both China and the United States have joined the meetings in Jakarta; their top diplomats met on Thursday outside in the Indonesian capital.

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According to a US official, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China's Wang Yi of the consequences after another cybersecurity incident that was attributed to China threatened to jeopardise the relationship's tentative stabilisation.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang advised Blinken that the United States should "work with" Beijing to strengthen their relationship and refrain from meddling in Chinese internal affairs.

Since the coup that destabilised Myanmar in 2021, ASEAN has disagreed on how to deal with the country's pro-China junta and the Myanmar crisis.

The bloc reiterated its condemnation of violence in a much-discussed communique released on Thursday. It reaffirmed that the basis for resolving the conflict must continue to be a five-point peace plan that was agreed upon with the junta but has largely been ignored since.

Although Myanmar is still a part of ASEAN, its leaders are no longer allowed to attend high-level summits due to the plan's failure to put an end to the violence and resume talks between the military and the anti-coup movement.
The Indo-Pacific region shouldn't serve as another theatre of war. 

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At the beginning of the 18-nation East Asia Summit ministerial meeting on Friday, Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi remarked that "our region must remain stable, and we intend to keep it that way."