Security and foreign experts see the Monday-Tuesday US-Asean summit in California as a promise from US president Barack Obama that the US will enhance relations with the key regional bloc, despite a coming change in US leadership.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha along with other Asean leaders, with the exception of Myanmar president Thein Sein who cancelled at the last minute citing the political transition in his country, will meet for talks with Mr Obama in California's Rancho Mirage Monday.
The meeting venue is the Sunnylands Centre, known as the Camp David of the US West Coast, where the US president held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in 2013.
Although the two-day summit takes place in the final year of the Obama administration, Patrick Cronin, a senior adviser and senior director of the Asia-Pacific security programme at the Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) said Asean is seen as the focal point of Mr Obama's policy of rebalancing towards Asia.
It is the first time Asean leaders have met in the US during his term in office.