The Biden administration is organizing the first-ever Washington-based summit of leaders from across the entirety of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to a White House National Security Council official. “New venues like the Quad are important but, foundationally, what is critical is a strong, vital, innovated, committed approach to ASEAN. And that’s what we’re seeking,” said Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs at the council. Deepening engagement with ASEAN nations individually and collectively is a core part of U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific, Campbell said, and the U.S.-ASEAN special summit was specifically called for in the White House’s Indo-Pacific Strategy document, released in February. Campbell said that ASEAN would be central to the United States’ engagement strategy in Asia, offering a much-needed entente to curb the malign influence of authoritarianism emanating throughout the region from the Chinese Communist Party. Such collaboration, he said, would help to grow …