Regardless of the differences in relation to the South China Sea, the summit will be a great opportunity for ASEAN to prove the relevancy – or even centrality – of its role in shaping the regional architecture in the Asia-Pacific and to alert the future USA presidents either from the Democrat or Republican parties that ASEAN does matter for the US. U.S. officials say the two-day summit at the Sunnylands estate is not directed against China, a strategic rival of the U.S. But the military might and economic clout of the rising Asian power is likely to loom over their discussions.
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The terrorist-economic-political front opened up against states across Southeast Asia for their unwillingness to “rebalance” the region hand-in-hand with Washington is probably why most ASEAN states are attending the otherwise provocative US-ASEAN summit in the first place.
“As your government pursues strategic relations with [ASEAN]”, he said, “a diplomatic effort launched under your leadership, we ask that you prioritize improvements in press freedom as a precondition for developing stronger ties with individual member states as well as the collective grouping”.
During the 3rd ASEAN-US Summit in Kuala Lumpur in November a year ago, US President Barack Obama had invited all ASEAN Leaders to the US-ASEAN Leaders Summit. ASEAN is the U.S.’s biggest destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), valued in 2012 at $190 billion, creating nearly 500,000 U.S.jobs, which is more than U.S. FDI to mainland China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong combined.
The summit is meant to send a signal that the U.S. values ASEAN, said U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, using the acronym for the Southeast Asian grouping.
2016 will enter the history books as the year in which the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) became the “ASEAN Community”.
In its website, LAWAC said Aquino will discuss with its members and guests “the growing tension between the Philippines and China over sovereignty issues in the South China Sea”.
He said they would also touch on the issues of terrorism, cross-border crime, as well as peace and security in the Asia Pacific region.
“In exchange, the USA has only entangling military commitments, domineering “free trade agreements, ‘ and constraining political requirements to offer its potential ‘allies” in the region”, Cartalucci emphasizes. She argues that the U.S. presence in the region “has never really faded”, while stressing how important it is to take advantage of this “current high-point” in bilateral relations.
In hosting the US-Asean summit in California next week, Mr Obama has been warned not to be too friendly with the human rights violators among the regional leaders.
“The president will call on all claimants to halt land reclamation, construction of new facilities and to carry out no militarization of outposts in the South China Sea”, Dan Kritenbrink, Obama’s top Asia adviser, told reporters on a conference call previewing the Asean talks. “I think the strategy by the Obama administration has been a long-term one which reflects a whole vision of Asia and realizes that ASEAN is a critical piece of the puzzle often not focused on by past administrations”, Feldman said.
The letter to the President specifically cites ongoing human rights violations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Thailand, Burma, and Laos. It’s going to be a more informal, less structured atmosphere.
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And of course, it is the United States who has declared itself arbiter in all maters regarding “universal principles and the rule of law”.
