PHNOM PENH — Four meals, three time zones and two nights on a plane.
It’s a grueling schedule for any U.S. president whenever they travel to Asia. President Joe Biden, who turns 80 this month, arrived in Cambodia on Friday after spending nearly twenty-four hours traveling from Washington to Egypt and Phnom Penh.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden called Oregon Governor-elect Tina Kotek on the first of two long-haul flights that brought him to Asia.
He also spent time checking in White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"He's been meeting with his team talking about the next couple of days," she told reporters traveling with Biden on Air Force One.
The latest:
- Biden’s (very long) day: The president left Washington, D.C. late Thursday evening and delivered remarks on Friday touting U.S. investments in clean energy at the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh before he landed in Phnom Penh.
- First order of business: He sat down with the country’s strongman President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The leaders discussed human rights and Biden pushed for the release of political prisoners, the White House said.
- What’s on the the agenda: A bilateral meeting with Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, a photo with ASEAN leaders and a gala dinner.
- Where he’s at now: Taking some down time after two nearly back-to-back flights that lasted between nine and 10 hours each.
- Gourmet experience: Air Force One passengers were served “honey chicken biscuits," a brunch of “spinach & artichoke egg soufflé” and a "harvest chicken salad” with apples, pecans, cranberries and crumbled goat cheese for dinner. For breakfast, the menu was a “blueberry maple chia parfait” and a “bacon, egg & cheese bagel."
What's about to happen
Biden is keeping America’s friends close and its rivals closer during his trip to Asia.
The president will meet with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Sunday in Cambodia and has plans to hold bilateral meetings later in the week with the new prime ministers of the UK and Italy.
But first, he met with el-Sisi in Egypt, and the next day in Cambodia, Biden planned to meet with Hun Sen. The U.S. has targeted people close to the Cambodia president with sanctions.
Sullivan said that Biden is meeting with the hosts of each summit he is attending and pointed out that when Biden travels to Bali for the G-20 on his third and final stop, he will meet with Indonesia's democratically-elected President Joko Widodo.
"So he will have plenty of opportunity to engage deeply with core democratic allies," Biden's national security advisor said.
"But he's going to engage across the board in service of America's interests and to advance America's strategic position and our values. And that's what guides his decision on every leader he chooses to engage with."
Top takeaways
- "I think that's just the reality of being President of the United States — that you have to both work with governments like China and Egypt on issues like climate change, but also push for those countries to be more free," said Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz. " I think President Biden has to do both."
- Sullivan said Biden plans to speak with Japan and South Korea about North Korea's ballistic missile program when he holds a trilateral meeting with the nations Sunday.
Why it matters
Biden is trying to win over countries in South East Asia that felt neglected under his predecessors and may be inclined to remain neutral or side with China if regional conflict breaks out.
"It is certainly the case that the countries of the region do not want conflict or confrontation between the major powers," Sullivan told reporters on the flight to Cambodia. "But they also very much want U.S. presence — forward-deployed presence in the region."
Sullivan said the U.S. is "an important anchor of peace and stability" in the region and works to ensure "no country can engage in the kind of sustained intimidation and coercion that would be fundamentally adverse to the nations of ASEAN and other countries."
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Meeting with Xi Jinping overshadows G20:Is Biden ready for G20 sparring session? Foreign rivals, tensions await president in Bali.
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