The leaders of ten Southeast Asian nations will visit the United States in the first half of 2016 for a special summit with US President Barack Obama, according to the US ambassador to the region.
President Obama invited the leaders from the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) during his visit to the region for the East Asia Summit in Manila and the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in November, a further effort to refocus the United States’ so-called pivot towards Asia.
US Ambassador to ASEAN, Nina Hachigian said there would be more announcements in coming weeks about the exact timing and agenda of the historic summit, the first between the US and ASEAN leaders on American soil.
“The upgrade of our relationship to a strategic partnership and the invitation of President Obama for all ten ASEAN leaders to come to the United States are perfect examples of how we have increased our engagement in the Asia-Pacific pretty dramatically and set what we call a new normal, a new base level of intensified activities with Asia,” she said.
Speaking to reporters, Ms Hachigian said ASEAN had shown a clear ambition to play a larger global leadership role, citing the bloc’s concerted efforts on climate change, the war on terror, people trafficking and illegal fishing. She said the United States had shown a “high level of political commitment” to ASEAN, further evidenced by top level visits from President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter this year.
It is expected that the future summit talks will again centre on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a dominant theme during the discussions in Manila and Kuala Lumpur. During his Asia visit, Mr Obama argued that claimants should “halt reclamation, construction and militarisation of disputed areas”, a focus on the rule of law that Ambassador Hachigian reiterated.
“We support a peaceful resolution of disputes including the use of international legal mechanisms such as arbitration, including the arbitration pursued by the Philippines,” she said, while defending US freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, which have raised the ire of Beijing.
“These operations don’t assert any special US-specific rights, we’ve conducted them for decades in dozens and dozens of locations including, in the past, in the South China Sea. There isn’t any reason why the South China Sea should be an exception to this programme.
“There’s no reason that these operations, which are conducted in accordance with international law, should be viewed as elevating tensions in any way. When China has operated lawfully in our territorial waters we have not reacted because they have the legal right to do so,” she said.
She also addressed the upcoming challenges posed by the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which, from Dec 31, will integrate Southeast Asia’as economies into a single market and production base.
“It’s a new thing so it’s understandable that some people are concerned about change but it’s ultimately going to be very positive,” she said. The anxieties about the AEC are not just in the lesser developed countries, the more developed countries have concerns about it.
“I don’t think anyone in the early ‘90s would have predicted that ASEAN was going to become a tariff-free community. But everyone recognises there’s lots of work to do.” (Jack Board)
Link: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/asean-leaders-to-hold/2312094.html
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