WITH just 11 days to go before the United States-ASEAN Summit gets underway, officials on both sides of the pacific are preparing for the two-day event which will bring together U.S. President Barack Obama and leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries.
The first stand-alone United States-ASEAN Summit will be on February 15 to 16.
The meeting was called when ASEAN and the U.S. upgraded their level of cooperation from dialogue partner to strategic partner in November last year.
Key issues, especially politics, the economy and security including cooperation in fighting Islamic State and the South China Sea row are likely to be discussed.
But, U.S. Assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Daniel Russel, stressed that the summit is “not anti-China”.
He said the summit is not about china but about the U.S. and ASEAN, stressing that the meeting is the culmination of a seven-plus-year investment the United States has made first and foremost in the Asia pacific region, particularly in ASEAN.
Several ASEAN states are embroiled in an increasingly bitter spat with china over disputed territory in the South China Sea.
The U.S. says it takes no position on ownership of the various reefs and islets under dispute, but insists freedom of navigation in the vital shipping lane must be maintained. (Eagle News Service)
