United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will participate in five virtual meetings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Saturday that Blinken will take part in virtual ministerial meetings of the U.S.-ASEAN, East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) from Monday to Friday.

The secretary will also attend the Mekong-U.S. Partnership and the Friends of the Mekong ministerial meetings during the period.

The department said that Blinken would discuss pressing regional and international issues with leaders from across the Indo-Pacific region during those meetings.

Attention is drawn on whether North Korea will attend the ARF, one of the rare international gatherings that the North has regularly attended. ARF is the biggest annual security conference in the Asia-Pacific region and brings together top diplomats from 27 countries.