US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was central to the Obama administration's elevated engagement in Asia.
"A central pillar of that strategy is to work more closely with ASEAN, to
deepen our economic, strategic, and people-to-people engagement," she told ASEAN
foreign ministers.
ASEAN plays an indispensible role in holding this region’s institutional
architecture together and in advancing the common interests of all stakeholders in the Asia Pacific.
Clinton said America had "a stake in ASEAN’s success", noting that "we have
more investment in ASEAN than we have in China", a fact which was "surprising" to most Americans