Pundits are questioning the long-term reliability and vision of US-ASEAN cooperation, with the region often overlooked in the superpower's Indo-Pacific strategy.

Washington has repeatedly denounced the coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government last year, and the US government has imposed sanctions on top figures in Myanmar's military.  

Last week brought the North's first acknowledgment of an "explosive" outbreak, with experts warning it could wreak devastation in a country with limited medical supplies and no vaccine programme.

The meeting, disclosed by Saifuddin in a Twitter post late on Saturday, was held on the sidelines of a two-day summit in Washington between the United States and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which excluded Myanmar's leader over a military coup last year.

In a joint 28-point "vision statement" after a two-day meeting, the two sides took what analysts called a symbolic step of committing to raise their relationship from a strategic partnership to a "comprehensive strategic partnership" in November.

Addressing a summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Vice President Kamala Harris said the region was a US priority. The opening session of their meeting at the State Department on Friday would focus on maritime security and health issues, she said.

State media KCNA said a total of 42 people had died, with 820,620 cases and at least 324,550 under medical treatment.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985 but was not until now invited to the White House, was the target of a shoe-throwing protester in Washington on Wednesday, photos and video posted on the Khmer-language website monoroom.info showed.

The isolated North confirmed on Thursday its first COVID-19 infections since the pandemic emerged more than two years ago, shifting to the "maximum emergency epidemic prevention system" and imposing a national lockdown. On Friday it reported its first COVID-related death.

Australia had tracked the spy ship over the past week as it sailed past the Harold E Holt naval communications station at Exmouth, which is used by Australian, US and allied submarines.

Since late April, six people with symptoms of fever had died and one had tested positive for the highly contagious Omicron BA.2 subvariant of the coronavirus, the official Korean Central News Agency said, adding a fever of unidentified origin has "explosively spread nationwide."

The Biden administration made the pledge as it opened a two-day summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, part of a campaign to show that the United States still prioritizes Asia despite months of intense focus on repelling Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Biden started a two-day summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington with a dinner for the leaders at the White House ahead of talks at the State Department on Friday.

"We do not support Taiwan independence and we have repeatedly made this clear both in public and in private," State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press briefing.

The request to alter the Cold War-era Defense Production Act (DPA) came as part of the Pentagon's recommendations to Congress for how to write the upcoming US military funding bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act.

"I have no doubt that under the next administration, our bilateral relations will only become stronger, our peoples closer and our cooperation deeper and wider," Huang Xilian said in the statement.

In a phone call, US President Joe Biden congratulated Ferdinand Marcos Jr on his recent election win, the White House said late Wednesday Washington time.

"There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020," the state media said.

Chinh, in Washington for a two-day summit between President Joe Biden and Southeast Asian leaders starting on Thursday, said he had had discussions on Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) with US officials earlier on Wednesday.

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will meet Biden for dinner Thursday at the start of a two-day summit, part of a renewed US focus on Asia after months of intense effort on Ukraine.

Yoon has warned of a "tense" security environment, citing the possible nuclear test, which US and South Korean officials have said could occur as early as this month after Pyongyang broke a 2017 moratorium on long-range missile testing in March.

A two-day summit with the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) begins with a White House dinner on Thursday before talks at the State Department on Friday.

Border safeguards will be lifted fully and all pre-departure testing dropped from 11:59 pm on July 31, with Ardern saying "New Zealand is in demand and now fully open for business".

The Japanese government has recognized two-time vice president Jusuf Kalla for his contributions to bilateral relations by awarding him with the Order of the Rising Sun.

The US Navy's 7th Fleet said the guided-missile cruiser USS Port Royal conducted a "routine" Taiwan Strait transit through international waters "in accordance with international law" on Tuesday, the second such mission in two weeks.

Some parts of the reclusive communist nation have been suffering shortages for weeks, according to state media, but on Monday pumps in the capital began to run dry.

Marcos, better known as "Bongbong", trounced bitter rival Leni Robredo to become the first candidate in recent history to win an outright majority in a Philippines presidential election, marking a stunning comeback by the son and namesake of an ousted dictator that has been decades in the making.

Yoon, 61, who started work in an underground bunker with a security briefing on North Korea, took office at a time of high tensions on the peninsula, with Pyongyang conducting a record 15 weapons tests since January, including two launches last week.

The President has taken off with key members of his administration on a multifaceted mission to build a “peaceful, stable and prosperous” Indo-Pacific.

The activities could be part of China's efforts to bolster its joint aerial and maritime operational capabilities in the Pacific, and Japan will continue to take heed of the situation and keep up surveillance at sea and in the air, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press briefing.