The corridors of the Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta on Thursday, which will bring together Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, provide an opportunity for rare talks amid tense relations between the three major countries.

The summit hosted by the Indonesian capital, Harris and Lee, gathers around the same table, a day after the Chinese prime minister warned the leaders of the 18 countries that the major powers should settle their differences to avoid a "new cold war".

The spotlight will be on the talks between officials of the world's two largest economic powers, in light of the tension between them on a range of issues, from the dispute over Taiwan to relations with Moscow, through the struggle for influence in the Pacific, days before the G20 summit in New Delhi.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared, "I ask... the leaders of the Southeast Asian Summit to make (from this meeting) a forum for strengthening cooperation and not for fueling rivalries."

For her part, Harris held private talks with Southeast Asian leaders during which they discussed "the importance of enforcing respect for international law in the South China Sea," according to a statement.

The ASEAN summit will be the first occasion for senior officials from the United States and Russia to gather, about two months after the last ASEAN meeting in July in Jakarta, which witnessed tension, during which Lavrov faced harsh Western criticism of his country over the invasion of Ukraine.

Joining the Southeast Asian leaders' meeting were Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yun Sok Yul, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the summit and confirmed that he will make an official visit to China "later this year", as Canberra seeks to improve relations with Beijing.

Addressing his summit partners, Indian Prime Minister Modi stressed the importance of "building a post-Covid world order based on law," calling for collective efforts for a "free and open" region in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Lavrov is expected to stress the dangers of expanding NATO's influence in the Asian region, according to what the Russian Foreign Ministry said during a briefing this week.

Although the ASEAN summit brings together some of the major powers in the world, its ability to settle regional and global differences remains limited, according to experts.

The analyst at the "International Institute for Strategic Studies" Aaron Connelly said that the participation of the major powers "is an indication of ASEAN's ability to bring together the parties, but we can say recently that the East Asian Summit has weakened, turned into a discussion forum."

And if Thursday's meeting involved a geopolitical dimension more than others, the major powers took advantage of the previous summits in Jakarta to consolidate their alliances and put pressure on the Southeast Asian bloc.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Prime Minister boarded the high-speed train, whose project was funded by China and is still in the experimental stage, heading from Jakarta to Bandung in Java, accompanied by a senior Indonesian official.

Kamala Harris met successively Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on the sidelines of the summit.
"The Vice President reaffirmed the United States' unwavering commitment to the Philippines and emphasized the role the US-Philippine alliance plays in ensuring that the Indo-Pacific remains free, open and prosperous," a statement read.