Southeast Asia leaders kick off ASEAN summit in Cambodia

Southeast Asian leaders kicked disconnected the ASEAN acme successful the Cambodia connected Friday, with Myanmar's governmental situation and the U.S.-China rivalry expected to predominate discussions.

Cambodia, this year's seat for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is hosting the play acme successful Phnom Penh — the group's archetypal in-person gathering since the Covid pandemic.

The 10-nation bloc is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Myanmar, however, was not invited to this year's summit, pursuing the subject coup successful 2021 which saw its elected person Nobel bid laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ousted from power.

Leaders from the U.S., China, South Korea and Japan volition besides beryllium gathering ASEAN leaders successful Phnom Penh.

"Looking to the future, ASEAN needs to powerfully beforehand the values that person made ASEAN palmy implicit the past 5 decades. It is simply a effect of hard enactment and perseverance that we each request to cherish to proceed to grounds occurrence successful the clip ahead," said Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia astatine the opening ceremony.

"The U.S.-China relations are the astir important relations, not conscionable to the 2 countries, but besides to our determination improvement arsenic well," said Kung Phoak, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Cambodia, told CNBC "Squawk Box Asia" Thursday, earlier the acme officially started.

He said the bloc is "looking astatine ways connected however we tin fortify ourselves."

"We enactment guardant a fig of frameworks, strategies and policies and besides grow partnerships with not conscionable the U.S. and China, but with galore different countries arsenic well," said Kung.

Just past month, the U.S. restricted China's ability to get and manufacture immoderate circumstantial types of precocious computing chips, thereby crimping China's entree to cardinal technology. 

"ASEAN remains neutral successful this contention and we don't privation to take sides. ASEAN wants to enactment intimately with some countries," Kung told CNBC. 

The U.S. and China are 2 of ASEAN's top trading partners.

Collectively, ASEAN is the U.S.'s 4th largest goods trading partner, according to the U.S. Trade Representative office. U.S. goods and services commercialized with the bloc reached an estimated $362.2 cardinal successful 2020, it said.

According to Chinese authorities media, with China remaining the largest trading spouse of ASEAN for 13 consecutive years, according to an August report. Trade betwixt China and the ASEAN reached $544.9 cardinal successful the archetypal 7 months of this year, state-backed media Xinhua reported.

ASEAN presently has escaped commercialized agreements with the 2 powerhouses aiming for escaped travel of goods, services, and investments. 

"China whitethorn beryllium the fig 1 trading spouse of ASEAN, but ASEAN looks to the U.S. for innovation," said Ted Osius, president and CEO of U.S.-ASEAN Business Council.

"It's astir diversification erstwhile it comes to ASEAN and you don't privation to person your system dominated wholly by 1 different economy. The ASEAN nations privation much trading partners, the more, the better," helium told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" connected Thursday.

Besides establishing beardown economical cooperation, ASEAN is besides successful ongoing dialog with nations to found peace. 

"We privation to get much [nations] to motion the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation," said Kung. The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation successful Southeast Asia is simply a bid pact among Southeast Asian countries established successful 1976. 

Ukraine signed the pact connected Thursday, bringing the fig of authorities parties to the pact of ASEAN to 50. 

"We don't enactment menace oregon usage of unit against different sovereign country. And Ukraine is 1 of the partners we are hoping to further deepen the narration going forward," Kung said erstwhile asked about Russia invading Ukraine.

On the Myanmar military's convulsive crackdown connected dissent, Kung reiterated that "Myanmar is an integral portion of ASEAN."

"The much we deviate from the Five-Point Consensus and the ASEAN charter, the much hard it is to determination guardant with the determination agenda," helium said.

The Five-Point Consensus refers to ASEAN leaders' statement successful April past year, which called for the contiguous cessation of unit successful Myanmar. 

The subject medication of Myanmar has shown nary committedness to the Five-Point Consensus, contempt agreeing to it successful a peculiar gathering successful April, 2 months aft the coup which overthrew the antiauthoritarian government. 

For this reason, the subject medication of Myanmar has been excluded from high-level meetings of the bloc.

"It's successful the champion involvement of each the ASEAN subordinate states to find a mode to marque definite that the problems determination tin beryllium solved arsenic soon arsenic possible," Kung added.