• World leaders will convene in Cambodia for the opening of a series of regional summits.
• The G20, G20 and ASEAN summits are the first meetings to be held in person since.
• They will discuss issues like climate change, global inflation and rising food prices.

This weekend, world leaders will gather in Phnom Penh for the opening of a series of international summits taking place in Southeast Asia over the next week, where disagreements between major countries and war might cast a shadow over discussions.

The first stop is the capital city of Cambodia, where leaders from the Indo-Pacific region will gather alongside an ASEAN summit. Next week, the Group of 20 (G20) leaders will convene in Bali, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will assemble in Bangkok.

As the first time all three events have been held in person since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak began in 2020, the stacked diplomatic lineup will test the global appetite for coordination on issues like climate change, global inflation and rising food prices as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and economic recovery from the pandemic.

This political year is dogged by sharp geopolitical divisions of a kind not seen in decades, as the conflict in the Ukraine has fundamentally altered Russia’s relationship with the West, the world’s two largest economies, the US and China, are locked in escalating competition, and the rest of the world is under pressure to choose a side.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, may or may not show up for the series of diplomatic dates. Two of the summits will be held in Southeast Asia, which has traditionally served as the focal point for the competition between Beijing and Washington in terms of influence. Both US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are anticipated to participate.

Biden travels to the east following his party’s better-than-expected performance in the US midterm elections, while Xi returns to the global arena after years of absence due to the pandemic and secures a record-breaking third term in office. Both parties would be required to portray their nation as a more capable and trustworthy global actor than the other.

Their first in-person meeting since Biden’s victory will take place on Monday on the fringes of the G20, the White House announced on Thursday. Beijing said on Friday that Xi would attend the G20 and APEC summits and that he would meet privately with Biden and a number of other world leaders.

Talks between the two parties may be able to prevent tensions between the powers from rising. Cinching strong agreements on confronting global crises, which are already difficult to negotiate at the best of times, will be difficult for the leaders convening during the series of summits in the coming days.

The ASEAN summit of Southeast Asian leaders, which began on Friday in Phnom Penh and is intended to address bolstering regional stability as well as global concerns, will mirror fragmented world politics, according to experts.

But unlike other significant gatherings, which might be more intent on discussing the effects of the conflict in Ukraine, ASEAN leaders are under pressure to address an escalating conflict within their own group as Myanmar remains in disarray and under military rule nearly two years after a bloody coup toppled the democratically elected government.

How much the region can agree on and what it can achieve across the range of summits will be impacted by differences between Southeast Asian countries on how to handle that conflict, compounded by their overlapping allegiances with great powers – and a reluctance from the bloc to appear to take sides between the US and China.

Rights organizations and observers claim that nearly two years after the military coup that toppled Myanmar’s fledgling democracy, freedoms and rights have sharply deteriorated in the nation; state executions have returned; and the number of documented violent attacks by the ruling military junta on civilian infrastructure, including schools, has increased.

Millions of people have protested the military junta’s control through acts of civil disobedience, and a number of armed rebel groups have also arisen.

After Myanmar’s ruling junta failed to put into effect a peace plan negotiated in April of last year, leaders of Southeast Asia will try to find a way ahead at summits this weekend in Phnom Penh. Despite demands for its expulsion from ASEAN from human rights organizations, the nation is still a member, but it is not permitted to send delegates at the political level to significant gatherings.

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