President Joe Biden pledges US will work with Southeast Asian nations

Phnom Pehn: President Joe Biden promised on Saturday that the United States would work with a strategically vital coalition of southeast Asian nations, telling leaders that we're going to build a better future that we all want to see in the region where US rival China is also working to expand its influence.

Citing the three Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits he's participated in as president, Biden said the 10-country bloc is at the heart of my administration's

Indo-Pacific strategy and promised to collaborate to build a region that is free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.

I look forward to continuing our work together with ASEAN and with each one of you to deepen peace and prosperity throughout the region to resolve challenges from the South China Sea to Myanmar and to find innovative solutions to shared challenges," Biden said, citing climate and health security among areas of collaboration.

Biden's efforts at this year's ASEAN summit are meant to lay the groundwork for his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping the first face-to-face encounter of Biden's presidency with a leader whose nation the US now considers its most potent economic and military rival.

Biden and Xi will meet on Monday at the Group of 20 summit that brings together leaders from the world's largest economies, which is held this year in Indonesia on the island of Bali. Traveling to Phnom Penh earlier Saturday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will raise issues such as freedom of navigation and illegal and unregulated fishing by China with the ASEAN leaders aimed at demonstrating US assertiveness against Beijing.