A top US official met with Myanmar's shadow foreign minister on Thursday as US President Joe Biden welcomed Southeast Asian officials to Washington with promises to help clean energy and marine security. Min Aung Hlaing, the Myanmar regime's leader, was not invited to the summit, and the US has symbolically represented the country with an empty chair.

        Eight of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) ten members went to Washington for the two-day summit, which began with a closed-door White House supper of thyme-poached chicken and vanilla ice cream.

        Despite months of heavy concentration on opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration, which entered office identifying China as the main foreign competitor, is eager to demonstrate that it is still emphasizing Asia.

        The White House proposed new programs for US$150 million, a pittance in comparison to a $40 billion package for Ukraine and the billions injected into the area by China, which has also asserted its might in the tumultuous South China Sea.

        However, the US claimed it was working with the private sector and that Biden will announce a wider package, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, when he visits Tokyo and Seoul next week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the connection earlier in the day when she invited ASEAN leaders to lunch and pushed them to stay firm against Russia's incursion.

        "If we do nothing, we open the door to more aggressiveness, including maritime and other concerns in the South China Sea," she warned. 'Candor' about property rights. "Another demonstration of America's determination to be a strong, trusted partner in Southeast Asia," Pelosi said of the meeting.

        Pelosi said she believed in "candor" and urged Southeast Asian governments to uphold human rights, including LGBTQ persons, in contrast to China's hands-off attitude. "Let me be clear: when we hear about LGBTQ individuals being tortured, it is unacceptable to the American people—and it continues to be a barrier to full respect in our relationship," she added.

        Pelosi did not name specific nations, but legislation in Brunei and Indonesia's Aceh region have sparked outrage by allowing for severe punishment for consensual gay intercourse. The White House announced $60 million in additional financing for new marine programs, which would involve the deployment of a Coast Guard cutter and troops to combat criminality, including illicit fishing.

        The White House also announced that it will spend $40 million in sustainable energy in the climate-vulnerable region, and that it would work with the private sector to generate up to $2 billion. Another effort, introduced while Biden attended a separate virtual conference on COVID, is a programme to screen for developing respiratory illnesses through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new office in Hanoi.

        "I believe this meeting will create impetus for the United States to return to the area," Indonesian President Joko Widodo said at a US-ASEAN Business Council side event. Meeting with Myanmar's opponents. Southeast Asia has long been considered as a victim of its own success, with the US focusing its attention elsewhere due to the region's lack of pressing issues.

        However, after the junta deposed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's elected administration in February last year, the US has increased pressure on Myanmar, which was previously touted as a democratic success story. The democratic exile leadership was invited to Washington and met with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, but they did not represent Myanmar in the negotiations.

        After having elections on Monday, the Philippines did not send its president and was represented by its foreign minister. Cambodia's experienced strongman Hun Sen, the current head of ASEAN, and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha, the former army leader who led a 2014 coup, are among those attending. According to Human Rights Watch, the US needs to promote democracy in more nations than Myanmar.

        "The message will be that human rights violations are now accepted in the guise of establishing coalitions to confront China," said John Sifton, the group's Asia advocacy director.