BANGKOK - In May, when US President Joe Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) to reassert Washington's regional leadership, three out of Asean's 10 countries were absent from the list of initial members.
One of them was Cambodia, led by unabashedly pro-China Prime Minister Hun Sen. The second was Myanmar, a fledgling democracy upturned last year by a military junta that is increasingly legitimised by Beijing.
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