ASEAN-US Leaders to Meet in New York
ASEAN Secretariat, 6 September 2010
The Leaders of ASEAN and the United States will meet in New York City on 24 September 2010.
A White House press statement issued on 3 September said that President Barack Obama has invited the Leaders of the ten ASEAN Member States as well as the Secretary-General of ASEAN to join him for the second ever US-ASEAN leaders meeting.
At the first such meeting, held in Singapore in November 2009, the ASEAN Leaders and the US President had pledged to deepen cooperation in a number of areas of common concern including trade and investment, regional security, disaster management, food and energy security, and climate change. The President looks forward to working with the Leaders to assess the progress on these issues, identify future efforts to strengthen US-ASEAN relations, and discuss multilateral approaches for greater regional cooperation, the statement went on to say.
The invitation reflects the US’ confidence in ASEAN as an economically robust region that is full of opportunities and potentials, said Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan, commenting on the invitation.
The US has expressed interest to join the East Asia Summit (EAS), a proposal that the ASEAN Foreign Ministers will now recommend to the ASEAN Leaders at the 17th ASEAN Summit in Ha Noi in October, a move that the Secretary-General said will present “a new configuration of relations and possibilities in East Asia. The successive and proactive re-engagement of ASEAN by the US has brought about a transformation of seismic proportions to ASEAN-US relations,” added the Secretary-General.
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