Southeast Asian leaders are besieged by thorny issues as they hold ASEAN summit

Southeast Asian leaders led by Indonesian host President Joko Widodo are gathering in their final summit this year, besieged by divisive issues with no solutions in sight: Myanmar’s deadly civil strife, new flare-ups in the disputed South China Sea, and the longstanding United States-China rivalry.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings will open Tuesday in the Indonesian capital Jakarta under tight security. The absence of U.S. President Joe Biden, who typically attends, adds to the already somber backdrop of the 10-state bloc’s traditional show of unity and group handshakes.
ASEAN foreign ministers gathered Monday ahead of the leaders’ summit. Mohammad Mahfud, Indonesia’s coordinating minister in charge of political, legal and security affairs, told the region’s top diplomats that their “community’s strength is being challenged by one crisis after another.”