US-ASEAN Leaders Summit US president plans ASEAN summit on sidelines of UN assembly. Earth Times. September 2, 2010. US President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of South-East Asia to a summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, reports said Thursday. Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), told The Nation online news service that Obama had set September 24 for the meeting at a "special" venue in New York. "The US recognizes the big shift from the West to the East after the global financial crisis," Surin said. "So far, most of the ASEAN leaders are positive" about the suggested meeting, Surin said. He said the summit, which will last two hours, demonstrated the "growing momentum" of US-ASEAN relations. When Obama took power, he vowed to "re-engage" with South-East Asia, which has been overshadowed by US interest in China and India over the past decade. President Barack Obama's plan to meet Southeast Asian leaders this
month reaffirms U.S. trust in a group that's leading efforts to meet
global economic and financial challenges, a regional official said.
"Re-engagement by the U.S. with Southeast Asia opens up new diplomatic possibilities, creates new trade and investment opportunities," Surin Pitsuwan, Jakarta-based secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said today in an e-mailed response to questions by Bloomberg News. "Growth in this region is more robust and sustained than any other regions, North America and Europe included. Asean can play a modulating role in regional strategic and security relations." The U.S. faced criticism last month for skipping a meeting of Asean trade ministers in Vietnam, as regional leaders awaited a schedule for the summit. Obama is seeking closer ties to Asean members to counter China's growing clout in the region. "It will be significant for both sides to ensure that momentum
created last year at their Singapore meeting will continue to gain faster
pace," Surin said. "Leaders can raise and discuss any issues
in a free-flow format." Obama
to meet Asean heads. Straits Times. September 5, 2010. United States President Barack Obama will meet South-east Asian leaders
on Sept 24, at the time of the United Nations General Assembly, the
White House said. This will be the second such US-Asean leaders' meeting and it follows
a gathering in Singapore in November last year, where the leaders committed
to deeper cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, food, energy
and regional security. '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 White House said in a statement last Friday. Washington-based diplomats said the White House held prolonged negotiations
with Asean leaders on where to hold the summit. Some South-east Asian
officials preferred a summit in Washington, believing it would carry
greater weight. But diplomats said the White House found it was logistically more practical
to meet in New York - and worried about giving too much legitimacy to
Myanmar, just ahead of the country's controversial polls due to be held
on Nov 7 ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting US-ASEAN
economic ties 'priority' despite no-show. AFP. Aug 27, 2010. Economic ties between the United States and Southeast Asia are "a
high priority", an embassy spokesman said Saturday despite the
absence of US officials from a key regional trade meeting. Ministers from China, Japan, India and other leading trade partners
of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) attended
the annual talks which ended Friday in the central Vietnamese city of
Danang, but US officials were absent. "US government economic and trade officials maintain constant
and active dialogue with their ASEAN counterparts," the embassy
spokesman told AFP. "And we consider the US-ASEAN economic relationship to be a high
priority." The spokesman, who declined to be named, added that representatives
of the US-ASEAN Business Council -- which includes executives from major
corporations -- did attend the Danang meetings. "The American business community is a strong partner for ASEAN,"
the council said in a statement. It has participated for more than a
decade in the annual ASEAN economic talks. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said in Danang that "we
are disappointed" the US could not attend the annual economic discussions
but he described Washington's commitment to the region as "quite
strong". Customs ASEAN
to consider border talks. Phnom Penh Post. August 19, 2010. ASEAN chair Vietnam has said it is considering mediation in the long-running border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, with bilateral talks between the two countries currently stalled. Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong wrote to Vietnamese foreign minister Pham Gia Khiem last week to request ASEAN involvement in the dispute in order to prevent "large-scale armed conflict". "As ASEAN chair, Vietnam is actively consulting other ASEAN countries about the proposal that ASEAN mediates over the Preah Vihear dispute," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said in a statement Tuesday. Nguyen said that Vietnam hoped to see a peaceful settlement of the dispute, and called on Cambodia and Thailand to refrain "from armed conflict and from acts that could affect ASEAN solidarity". Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said the government welcomed Vietnam's move to open dialogue on the issue. "Cambodia and Thailand are members of ASEAN, so in order to avoid bloodshed or large-scale armed conflict, we need to utilise a multilateral mechanism initiated by ASEAN," Koy Kuong said. A report from Thai state media yesterday quoted Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban as saying that Thailand was still against international mediation. "Mr Suthep reiterated that the solutions to the border demarcation
dispute between Thailand and Cambodia should be sought through bilateral
negotiations, and that there was no need for either party to ask an
international body to step in to help solve the conflict," the
report said. Defense & Security ASEAN launches series of books on post-Nargis response. Xinhua. August 31, 2010. A series of six books on the post- Nargis response was launched in
Bangkok, Thailand recently as part of regional efforts to institutionalize
good practices of the post- Nargis operation in Myanmar, a statement
released by the ASEAN Secretariat said here Tuesday. "The books are our contribution to the world,"Secretary-
General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan said at the book launch ceremony
on Monday. In the aftermath of the cyclone, ASEAN was asked to step in to facilitate
the flow of international assistance, under the Tripartite Core Group
(TCG) mechanism, which also comprises the Government of Myanmar and
the United Nations. The mandate of the ASEAN-led coordination ended at the end of July
2010, and the coordination mechanism for continued coordination has
been handed over to the Government of Myanmar. The post-Nargis operation has provided an opportunity for ASEAN to
strengthen the partnerships with the international humanitarian community,
including the UN, donor countries and civil society. At the conference,
ASEAN also thanked all partners for the support to the post-Nargis operation. "We thank the Government of Myanmar, the UN, donors and international
community, NGO community, private sector and civil society. This is
a clear demonstration of a sharing and caring community within the ASEAN
Member States and a new way of working with the international community,"said
Dr Surin. "Although the mandate of the TCG has now come to a close, the
best practices from this experience, as documented in the now- launched
ASEAN book series, form a very important step in institutionalizing
the UN-ASEAN partnership and its working mechanisms to address future
disasters in the region,"said Dr Heyzer. The conference was attended by more than a hundred participants, from high-level representatives of ASEAN Member States, the UN, Dialogue Partners and partner countries, non-government organizations and other stakeholders. Financial Services China becomes ASEAN's biggest trade partner. Myanmar Times. September 6, 2010. CHINA became the biggest trade partner of ASEAN's 10 member states
in 2009, according to statistics released at ASEAN's ministerial meeting
in Danang, Vietnam, on August 25. ASEAN's eight biggest economic partners are China, the EU, Japan, Russia,
New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and the United States. The Chinese People's Daily Online reported last month that in the first
half of this year, total China-ASEAN trade volume reached US$136.5 billion,
up nearly 55 percent from 2009. ASEAN also became China's fourth-largest
trade partner in 2009. However total ASEAN trade declined by about 19% in 2009, from $1,897.1
billion in 2008 to $1,536.8 billion. The European Union became ASEAN's second-largest trade partner in 2009,
with total trade volume reaching 118 billion euros, or 24.5% of ASEAN's
total trade volume. "In the first five months [of the year], 23pc of the EU's total
exports went to ASEAN, the same as last year," EU trade commissioner
Karel De Gucht told reporters on August 27 in Danang. Japan, which takes 15% of ASEAN trade, is the group's third-largest
partner. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in ASEAN has flowed to the services
sector, according to an ASEAN statement. Services received $26.8 billion
worth of investment, 68% of total FDI inflows, in 2009. In the same year, the manufacturing sector received $8.5 billion, 22%
of total FDI, and mining and quarrying received $3.2 billion, 8% of
the total. "ASEAN's share of total global FDI inflows increased from 2.8%
in 2008 to 3.6% in 2009, amounting to $1.1 trillion," ASEAN secretary
general Dr Surin Pitsuwan told reporters in Da Nang, Vietnam. Health & Life Sciences ASEAN Workers Train for Pandemic Response. Voice of America. August 17, 2010. Public health workers from nearly a score of countries gathered in Cambodia to play a game - a game they hope will help make Southeast Asia better able to handle pandemic disease. In this game, the goal is to manage a severe pandemic that breaks out in a fictional region - known as Pandemica - that is comprised of six countries. The players - public health workers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and other countries - are deadly serious about this game. At the start of the five-day exercise this week in Phnom Penh, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the attendees will be able to learn best practices from each other. And, he said, just as importantly, they will get to know their counterparts in other countries. "I think a closer network of not only health workers, but all sectors in the national preparedness for such a catastrophe will be a most practical outcome. That is they know each other, they know each other's numbers, they know each other's addresses, and they will continue to inform each other what situation is occurring in their particular member state so that a quick collective action can be taken as an organization," he said. Surin added that challenges such as pandemics, financial crises and climate change are too big for individual countries to deal with, and require regional or even global responses. Within nations, he says, combating a pandemic requires a "whole of society" approach extending beyond the health sector to include those who provide food, utilities, public security and transportation. The outcome of this week's exercise, he says, ought to be a region
that can deal with the worst-case pandemic scenarios with a minimum
of losses, and help the rest of the world learn the right lessons, too. Information & Communications Technology Asean needs to be fully interconnected: Surin. The Nation. Asean Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan said that Asean must be fully interconnected both physically and virtually to maintain the grouping's centrality and leading role beyond. Dr. Surin told the representatives of East Asia Summit early this morning that the global economic dynamic has shifted to East Asia with the region's strong recoveries. Through its connectivity, Asean can accelerate economic integration within the grouping and the rest of East Asia, he added. East Asian representatives are members of the Governing Board of Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia (Eria), which is a think tank of the Asean Secretariat. The Eria governing board is expected to approve a research proposal submitted by Thailand to identify measures to facilitate cross-border trade and improved connectivity. At the upcoming EAS meeting in Hanoi, Eria will present the Comprehensive Asia Development Plan for adoption. The blueprint, the first of its kind, aims at promoting economic development and integration in East Asia.
END MEMO
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