China accused of building ‘island fortresses’ as Philippine newspaper obtains aerial images
The surveillance pictures were mostly taken between June and December last year. Photograph: Inquirer.net/Philippine Daily Inquirer
Beijing has been accused of building “island fortresses” in the South China Sea after a newspaper in the Philippines obtained aerial photographs offering what experts called the most detailed glimpse yet of China’s militarisation of the waterway.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer said the surveillance photographs – passed to its reporters by an unnamed source – were mostly taken between June and December last year and showed Chinese construction activities across the disputed Spratly archipelago between the Philippines and Vietnam.
Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the region.
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South China Sea, posted with vodpod
The South China Sea
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
July 22, 2011
We commend this week’s announcement that ASEAN and China have agreed on implementing guidelines to facilitate confidence building measures and joint projects in the South China Sea. This is an important first step toward achieving a Code of Conduct and reflects the progress that can be made through dialogue and multilateral diplomacy. We look forward to further progress.
The United States is encouraged by this recent agreement because as a Pacific nation and resident power we have a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime domain, the maintenance of peace and stability, and respect for international law in the South China Sea.
We oppose the threat or use of force by any claimant in the South China Sea to advance its claims or interfere with legitimate economic activity. We share these interests not only with ASEAN members and ASEAN Regional Forum participants, but with other maritime nations and the broader international community.
The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants for resolving the various disputes in the South China Sea. We also support the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. But we do not take a position on the competing territorial claims over land features in the South China Sea. We believe all parties should pursue their territorial claims and accompanying rights to maritime space in accordance with international law, including as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.
The United States is concerned that recent incidents in the South China Sea threaten the peace and stability on which the remarkable progress of the Asia-Pacific region has been built. These incidents endanger the safety of life at sea, escalate tensions, undermine freedom of navigation, and pose risks to lawful unimpeded commerce and economic development.
In keeping with the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration, each of the parties should comply with their commitments to respect freedom of navigation and over-flight in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, to resolve their disputes through peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force. They should exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from taking action to inhabit presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features, and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.
The United States encourages all parties to accelerate efforts to reach a full Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.
We also call on all parties to clarify their claims in the South China Sea in terms consistent with customary international law, including as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention. Consistent with international law, claims to maritime space in the South China Sea should be derived solely from legitimate claims to land features
Bolded emphasis is mine. We never signed onto L.O.S.T. and therefore have no seat at the table. Hillary had also warned about that. See the right sidebar.
When foreign policy comes up at the debates this cycle, on one side we hear one thing: ISIS ISIS ISIS. On the other side the refrain begins with the dreaded, notorious, and monotonous Iraq War Vote, and then Bernie Sanders wanders over the rainbow to a land where Saudi Arabia and Iran team up like munchkins and flying monkeys to assure the defeat of terrorism in that region by throwing a bucket of water on ISIS.
Ted Cruz has raised this issue, but somehow it never quite makes it into the meat of the debate. Donald Trump, of course, intends to crush China by any means necessary.
The truth is, there is a means to combat this aggression right at our fingertips and nothing is being done to implement it. Here is the issue:
Beijing’s provocative move to put sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles on little Woody Island breaks previous promises and invites retaliation.
China deployed its advanced HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island in the South China Sea sometime in the first half of this month, Pentagon officials have revealed. Images of the missiles were released yesterday by various news organizations, and Taiwan’s defense ministry confirmed the reports.
The Chinese deployment breaks a series of pledges Beijing made to the United States and the international community, one as recently as last month by Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Secretary of State John Kerry during Kerry’s trip to Beijing.
The missile deployments will destabilize the already troubled South China Sea, and the situation there could deteriorate fast as various nations, including the United States, introduce military assets in response to Beijing’s rapid build-up.
Long ago, back in 2008 before the election, those who were laying the groundwork for the emergence of the Tea Party spoke in hushed, dire tones about the “Law of the Sea Treaty” (LOST) as if it were some alien conspiracy to divest the United States of certain powers and options. The opposite was and is true.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton foresaw some probabilities on the foreign stage. One was the Arab Spring. She warned the Arab elders at Forum for the Future two years in a row that alienation from participation and unemployment were severe problems boiling beneath the surface among their populations. Hillary did not cause the Arab Spring. She predicted trouble if inclusion and jobs were not prioritized by leadership. She listened to their civil societies, perceived the growing unrest, and warned.
Hillary also knew that ratification of LOST was important and urgent. Here is how she introduced a plea for ratification.
I am well aware that this treaty does have determined opposition, limited but nevertheless quite vociferous. And it’s unfortunate because it’s opposition based in ideology and mythology, not in facts, evidence, or the consequences of our continuing failure to accede to the treaty. So I think you’ll hear, from both Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey as well as myself, further statements and information that really reinforces the very strong points that both of you have made.We believe that it is imperative to act now. No country is better served by this convention than the United States. As the world’s foremost maritime power, we benefit from the convention’s favorable freedom of navigation provisions. As the country with the world’s second longest coastline, we benefit from its provisions on offshore natural resources. As a country with an exceptionally large area of seafloor, we benefit from the ability to extend our continental shelf, and the oil and gas rights on that shelf. As a global trading power, we benefit from the mobility that the convention accords to all commercial ships. And as the only country under this treaty that was given a permanent seat on the group that will make decisions about deep seabed mining, we will be in a unique position to promote our interests.
(The “opposition based in ideology and mythology” Hillary referred to was, in fact GOP and specifically Tea Party opposition, making it odd that it is Ted Cruz alone who occasionally brings the South China Sea to the table.)
And there was this.
Now as a non-party to the convention, we rely – we have to rely – on what is called customary international law as a legal basis for invoking and enforcing these norms. But in no other situation at which – in which our security interests are at stake do we consider customary international law good enough to protect rights that are vital to the operation of the United States military. So far we’ve been fortunate, but our navigational rights and our ability to challenge other countries’ behavior should stand on the firmest and most persuasive legal footing available, including in critical areas such as the South China Sea.
I’m sure you have followed the claims countries are making in the South China Sea. Although we do not have territory there, we have vital interests, particularly freedom of navigation. And I can report from the diplomatic trenches that as a party to the convention, we would have greater credibility in invoking the convention’s rules and a greater ability to enforce them.
Most will not remember that later in 2012, as Dems were gathering to renominate Barack Obama in Charlotte, Hillary was on her way to an ASEAN Summit where issues in the South China Sea would be at the forefront.
BRISBANE, Australia — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for Southeast Asian states to present a united front to the Chinese in dealing with territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
SNIP
She wants “to strengthen ASEAN unity going forward,” a senior U.S. official told reporters on board Clinton’s plane as she flew from the Cook Islands to Australia for a brief refueling stop en route to Indonesia.
Issues in the South China Sea would be far more easily settled if the United States were to assume its leadership position at the table as the world’s leading maritime power. This is an issue Hillary carries in her back pocket, and it has yet to arise in any question at a town hall or debate. Here is what happened the last time LOST came up for a vote.
Readers here know, it’s right there in the sidebar, the importance Hillary Clinton invested in ratification of the Law of the Sea Treat (LOST). She testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 23 of this year calling ratification “urgent” if the U.S. is to have equal footing on a level playing field in conflicts arising over jurisdictions with regard to offshore drilling and mining. Ratification would permit us to extend our own continental shelf 200 miles – we have four of them! But Rachel Maddow last hour reported, as her blog explains, that the GOP has likely killed the ratification that would have boosted our economy and strengthened our position both in the global economy and militarily on the high seas. According to the blog post, the last two “nails in the coffin” were Senators Rob Portman and Kelly Ayotte – names in the news as possible Veep choices for Mitt Romney. Goes to show you, the Republicans can be transparent … it is possible. Stunning considering the long list of Republicans who supported ratification. Ambition, apparently knows no party loyalty – or common sense!
If President Obama looked a little haggard when he spoke to the press today, it was not all about Congress stonewalling a SCOTUS nomination. Guess where he was! And guess what they were talking about!
President Barack Obama, center, speaks at the plenary session meeting of ASEAN, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. Sitting with Obama are Laos’ president, Choummaly Sayasone, left, and Brunei’s sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, right. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
A fair town hall or debate question at any and all events this week should address foreign policy on a broader scale than the Middle East. The South China Sea may be on the other side of the globe, but what happens there affects us all. Only one candidate knows what needs to be done.
Hillary introduces this chapter with a good deal of background from her previous visits to China and the influence they had on her first visit there as secretary of state. She speaks of reunions with old friends that were not public and therefore not covered by press or the State Department.
It is clear that this maiden voyage in her new capacity was freighted, and she explains both her priorities and the degree to which some (political, environmental, and commercial issues) were given publicity and others (human rights issues) were not but emphasizes that human rights did not take a back seat.
She mentions discussing religious freedom and the related issues of Tibet and Taiwan in meetings with high officials but does not remind us that she took the trouble to attend church services. We at the now-defunct Hillary’s Village Forum knew and shared that information, but I never blogged it here.
She also participated in an online chat and a TV interview on this visit, although she does not specifically mention them. Part of her outreach to civil society to be sure.
It was during this meeting that she became aware of the upcoming Shanghai Expo about which it appeared no one in the U.S. was doing anything. So Hillary shouldered the responsibility to get a U.S. pavilion up and running in time for the opening in May 2010.
The most important item on her agenda with China was formulating a way to navigate through the ‘uncharted waters’ of the U.S.-China relationship. She and other cabinet officials, specifically Timothy Geithner being a high-profile proponent, were determined to initiate a U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue realized in May 2010.
Among all of the issues involving Asia, the most enormous elephant in the room swinging its massive trunk on the sidelines of every official meeting was the issue of ‘dominion,’ if it can be called that, over the waters of the South and East China Seas. These waters are vital to shipping routes, but also flow over precious mineral resources such as semi-conductors that are indispensable in the hardware that organizes our online lives now from communications through paperless bill-paying. The Chinese made it clear that their claims to these waters were non-negotiable. Hillary thought that if enough of China’s smaller neighbors were to coalesce around the issue of access the giant might blink.
She cites the July 2010 ASEAN Ministerial Meetings in Hanoi as the tipping point at which a coalition of south Asian countries became strong enough to press giant China on these seafaring issues.* Her instincts and predictions on this were spot-on.
*I still contend that if the Senate, at any point, had ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST – see the sidebar on the right) her job from here through her last Asia trip in 2012 would not have been so demanding. The island-hopping and bilaterals and trilaterals that took place in summer of 2012 might not have been so intense and crucial. You might remember her being given access that was not easy to come by to watch WJC address the Democratic National Convention in September of that year. All of that traveling among those islands was over maritime rights in the South and East China Seas. A LOST ratification might have obviated much of that shuttle diplomacy. But that’s just me. Just sayin’. Anyway, it’s water under all the bridges.
This is impressive for the litany of ASEAN efforts Hillary Clinton has fostered in her tenure at State. It is especially heartening to see her bring up the issue of poaching. Hillary Clinton knows why we should protect our fellow creatures.
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Remarks at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
New York City
September 27, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well good afternoon everyone, and welcome to New York. Thank you for joining us here. It’s a pleasure to welcome all of you to New York, and I want to offer a special greeting to my co-chair. Thank you so much, Foreign Minister. Not very long ago, it would have been impossible to imagine we would be sitting here together working so closely to advance a shared agenda, but it is a testament to the progress your country has achieved and to the promise that the future holds.
Since my first meeting with this group over three years ago, when I signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Thailand, the United States has made a sustained all-out effort to build an enduring multifaceted relationship with ASEAN. Over the summer I led a large delegation of American business executives and senior government officials to the first ever U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum, reflecting the increasingly important economic dimension of our partnership. And this year, we are expanding our cooperation on education to the U.S.-ASEAN Fulbright Initiative, and the Brunei-U.S. English Language Enrichment Project. We’ve also committed substantial new resources to the Lower Mekong Initiative, which is helping narrow ASEAN’s development gap. And we welcomed in our colleagues from Nay Pyi Taw to the meeting.
Earlier this month, I had the chance to visit the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta for the second time, and I thank the Secretary General for his warm and gracious hospitality. I’m pleased that the ASEAN committee of permanent representatives is visiting the United States this week for discussions on a wide range of issues.
Our increasing engagement with ASEAN is part of a broader effort by the United States to deepen our commitment to the Asia Pacific region. We want to work with all of you to build a stable and just regional order that will benefit every nation. And that means supporting mature and effective institutions that can mobilize common action and settle disputes peacefully. It means working toward rules and norms that help manage relations between peoples, markets, and nations and safeguard universal rights. And it means establishing security arrangements that provide stability and build trust.
Our relationship with ASEAN is at the heart of all these efforts, including our participation in the East Asia Summit. As President Obama made clear at last year’s meeting, the United States supports the East Asia Summit as the Asia Pacific’s premier institution for political and strategic issues, and we believe it is the capstone of increasingly mature and effective regional architecture.
We are pleased to see that the East Asia Summit is making progress across an expanding range of issues, from the energy ministerial in Brunei to the education ministerial in Indonesia. As we head toward the November leaders meetings, it is important we stay focused on pursuing a clear agenda and producing concrete results. We continue to support the priorities put forward in the Bali Declaration last year. And in particular, the areas that President Obama stressed should be at the top of our agenda together: disaster relief, nonproliferation, and maritime security. Now let me just say a quick work about each of those, and then a fourth we hope to elevate.
First, disaster relief. From the tsunami in Aceh in 2004 and on the islands off of Thailand and in Sri Lanka and so much else in the region, to the floods in the Philippines and Thailand again last year, to the triple disaster in Japan, to a cycle of storms and flooding, we have seen a lot of natural disasters in this region. But we also have seen a coordinated international response. The United States has been eager to work with our partners in the ASEAN Regional Forum and to participate in and help lead disaster relief exercises. We continue to believe it is imperative to develop a regional, legal framework to support the delivery and acceptance of emergency relief supplies, services, and personnel following major disasters. So we would urge all nations to endorse the Rapid Disaster Response Agreement as a first step.
The second priority is nonproliferation. Let me underscore it’s essential for all ASEAN and East Asia Summit nations to remain firm and unified in pursuit of the peaceful, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We also look to all ASEAN members to universalize the additional protocol and further strengthen domestic export control laws.
And I think it’s also fair to say that our responsibilities cannot end with the immediate neighborhood. Unfortunately, yesterday the President of Iran provided another reminder of why the international community continues to have serious concerns about his country’s nuclear program. As President Obama told the General Assembly, America wants to resolve this issue through diplomacy. We believe there is still time and space to do so, but that time is not unlimited and that’s why the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The best way to achieve a diplomatic solution we all see is for the international community, including ASEAN, to stay united. If we ease the pressure or waver in our resolve, Iran will have less incentive to negotiate in good faith or take the necessary steps to address the international community’s concerns.
The third priority is maritime security, and we look forward to the expanded ASEAN maritime forum next week in Manila. All 18 East Asia Summit states have been invited for in-depth discussions on how to improve safety on the region’s waterways, combat piracy, protect the environment, and we are encouraged by the recent informal dialogue between ASEAN and China as they work toward a comprehensive code of conduct for the South China Sea as a means to prevent future tension in the region.
As I have said many times, the United States does not take a position on competing territorial claim over land features, but we do have a national interest in the maintenance of peace and stability, respect for international law, freedom of navigation, and unimpeded lawful commerce in the South China Sea. The Untied States continues to support ASEAN’s Six-Point Principles, which we believe will help reduce tensions and pave the way for a comprehensive code of conduct for addressing disputes without threats, coercion, or use of force.
Finally this year, we hope to focus our EAS partners on the challenge of wildlife trafficking and the related issues of protecting biodiversity and preventing the emergence of pandemic diseases. The illegal trade in protected and endangered species is now estimated between $7- and $10 billion dollars a year. It is increasingly intertwined with other illicit activities that undermine regional security and prosperity, including organized crime. Earlier this month, APEC economies agreed to take steps to stop poachers and the United States is eager to work with our partners in ASEAN as well, developing new initiative, building on the good work of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network.
So we have a full plate in front of us, but that’s no surprise. ASEAN is a dynamic and crucial institution in a dynamic and crucial region of the world. The United States is committed to working with you very closely as we head toward the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh in November. I thank you very much, and please let me now turn to the Foreign Minister.
Secretary Clinton and Brunei’s Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah Participate in the Launch of the Brunei-U.S. English Language Enrichment Project U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Brunei’s Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah participate in the inaugural launch of the Brunei-U.S. English Language Enrichment Project for ASEAN in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. September 7, 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
Inaugural Launch of the U.S.-Brunei English Language Enrichment Project for ASEAN
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Universiti Brunei Darussalam
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
September 7, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good morning. Selamat Hari Raya. (Laughter.) I love this custom you have to provide gracious hospitality. Some people have remarked upon it as being so indicative, Your Royal Highness, of the graciousness of the people of Brunei.
It is wonderful to be here today, especially with my friend and colleague. His Royal Highness has been an excellent partner in so many of the important initiatives that have been undertaken by His Majesty and the Government of Brunei and by successive presidents of both parties in my country. And we are very grateful to you, sir, for your partnership and leadership, and on a personal basis, your friendship to me and to my family.
As His Royal Highness said, my husband, daughter, and late mother had the most wonderful visit to Brunei in 2000. I was unable to come at that time because I was running for the United States Senate, but I heard so often of what a fabulous time they had. I have been trying to get myself here ever since. (Laughter.) And I am so pleased that I have this opportunity to be with you.
I want to thank His Majesty for the leadership that he has provided in sponsoring this program and Brunei’s generous commitment to funding it over the next five years. I want to thank the Minister of Education. Thank you so much, sir, for being here. And Vice Chancellor, thank you for not only your support of this program but the excellent description of what UBD is doing in entrepreneurship, leadership, environmental programs, research. That is the future, and I am quite impressed with the progress that has been made in this university.
And Dr. Morrison, thank you for your leadership and for the East-West Center, which is our implementing partner, and to our ambassador, Ambassador Shields, and all of the ambassadors from throughout the ASEAN countries who are here with us today. This is a very significant event as we launch this Brunei-U.S. English Language Project for ASEAN. It is truly representative of the vision that Brunei brings to this project, and it is because of the excellent partnership between UBD and East-West Center. It is a tribute also to ASEAN and its centrality and unity and commitment to providing better futures for the young people of this dynamic, vital region.
In a few weeks, this university will welcome government officials and teacher trainers from across ASEAN. Over the course of three months, they will work together on an intensive training program to improve their English and to develop their professional skills. After their time here, the participants will travel to the East-West Center in Hawaii to continue that training.
We believe that learning English is a valuable tool in the 21st century, especially here in Southeast Asia. Scientists collaborate in English. Schools and universities often share information and ideas in English. International business and commerce rely on English. And it is the operational language for ASEAN, which makes it essential for diplomacy and regional cooperation.
Now, this is not in any way to undermine the importance of national and local languages, which are rich in meaning and culture and history. But speaking English can help foster cross-cultural friendships and partnerships, because when people from different countries are able to speak the same language, they can better understand each other, avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations, and try to find ways to collaborate to solve common problems. They can exchange ideas more easily about local, regional, and global trends and learn more on a personal level about each other’s lives and circumstances.
So this program is about more than learning a language. It’s about building ties of friendship, learning, cooperation, and partnership among the peoples of this diverse region. It’s about making ASEAN an even more effective and active organization. And it’s about strengthening the relationships people-to-people between ASEAN and the United States.
We highly value our relationship with the Government and people of Brunei, and it is so in keeping with what Brunei envisions as the kind of peaceful, prosperous future that it hopes for the region that it would assume the responsibility for this program and the funding. As Brunei assumes the chairmanship of ASEAN next year, it is having this hallmark program as one of the initiatives that speaks so clearly about the priorities that Brunei will bring to that chairmanship.
In addition to the new English Enrichment Project, Brunei and the United States will send highly qualified English language instructors out to teach in ASEAN countries. As I have now traveled to every ASEAN country, it’s been the most common request from governments – can you help us learn English? – from presidents and prime ministers and foreign ministers and ambassadors. And now we are able to respond that with the generosity and leadership of Brunei, we can help do so.
All of this builds on the English language teaching and exchange programs the United States already offers for students as young as 14 throughout Southeast Asia. We believe investing in young people is good for ASEAN and the Asia Pacific, good for the United States, and especially good for the shared future that these young people will approach.
So let me congratulate all the students in the audience. Let me also congratulate this university for the quality of education – a global education – that you are offering to the students here. I am delighted that you have exchange students from the United States. I hope that you will have even more in the future. And I hope that more students from Brunei will study in the United States. I just met at our Embassy the 100th student from Brunei to get a visa to study in the United States. So we would love to have more students as well and to enhance this exchange.
So thank you to all who have made this dream a reality. I look forward to hearing reports about how it progresses, the difference it’s making, the results that we are seeing. And I also look forward to many more years of friendship and partnership between the United States and ASEAN and in particular between the United States and Brunei.
Your Royal Highness, thank you very much. (Applause.)
ASEAN SECRETARY GENERAL SURIN: Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, chair of ASEAN program representative, Excellencies, members of the CPR, it is a great privilege for us to welcome the Secretary here for the second time in her term. And I remember very well on the 18th of February you were here. Your first trip to the world you came to Asia. You came to the ASEAN Secretariat. You became the highest ranking ever official of the United States Government to visit us. And ever since, this place has been a routine destination for visiting dignitaries to ASEAN, to the Republic of Indonesia.
At that time you promised many things. You promised full engagement with ASEAN, with Southeast Asia. You promised to accede to our Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. You have promised the highest presidential engagement. You have promised to come to attend our post-ministerial (inaudible) conference, ARF. And I am glad to say that you have delivered it all. Thank you very, very much. Along the way we were a bit skeptical and we asked you — we challenged you we would believe in the change when you delivered everything that you had promised us. And you did. And we certainly feel very much honored to welcome you here.
Now, let me just say that most of the diplomats we work with, they are counterparts. And you have turned your counterparts here in Southeast Asia, in ASEAN, into your friends. And friendship is extremely important for the region and for the region’s diplomacy. We count you not as counterpart, but as a true friend. That is why today is very special. And we hope that we will accomplish many more things together into the future with the United States and ASEAN.
Madam, warmly welcome, please.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much, my friend. And let me express what a pleasure it is to be back in Jakarta and to have this second opportunity to visit the ASEAN Secretariat.
As Dr. Surin has said, I came here in February of 2009 with the intention of deepening and broadening and elevating the relationship between the United States and ASEAN. And we have worked to do just that. I believe our relationship is stronger and more effective. And that is all to the good, because the United States views ASEAN as central to regional stability and economic progress in the Asia-Pacific.
We did sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, as I said we would, and I visited back in February of 2009. We were the first dialogue partner to open a mission to ASEAN. And I am pleased that others are also doing that. We appointed our first resident U.S. Ambassador, and Ambassador Carden holds regular meetings with his counterparts in the ASEAN Committee of Permanent Representatives, whom we soon will welcome on their first official visit to the United States. We have engaged with ASEAN at the highest levels, with President Obama attending three U.S.-ASEAN leaders meetings, as well as the East Asia Summit, here in Indonesia last year.
Later this month, I will host my ASEAN counterparts in a meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly. We have devoted resources to supporting ASEAN’s goal of economic and political integration through the Advance program to narrow the development gap among ASEAN nations, and to promote and protect human rights. We are increasing our People-to-People ties through the ASEAN Youth Volunteers program and the U.S.-ASEAN Fulbright program, which we are now launching.
In short, we are making a sustained, all-out effort to build an enduring, multi-faceted relationship between ASEAN and the United States. We want to do all we can to advance ASEAN’s goal of integration, because we have an interest in strengthening ASEAN’s ability to address regional challenges in an effective, comprehensive way.
And we really invite and need ASEAN to lead in crafting strong, regional responses to challenges like climate change and trans-national crime, which require collective actions. And we need ASEAN to lead in upholding a system of rules and responsibilities that will protect regional stability and guide the region to greater political and economic progress.
So, Dr. Surin, it is a great honor for me now to have returned for a second visit to conduct, if you will, a progress report among partners and friends, and to state once again what I have said in other contexts. The United States believes in ASEAN centrality, and ASEAN centrality is essential to ASEAN unity. So I am looking forward to our exchange today and the dialogue among us, looking forward to continuing to work on behalf of the U.S.-ASEAN relationship.
ASEAN SECRETARY GENERAL SURIN: Thank you very much. (Applause.)
BRISBANE, Australia — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling for Southeast Asian states to present a united front to the Chinese in dealing with territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
SNIP
She wants “to strengthen ASEAN unity going forward,” a senior U.S. official told reporters on board Clinton’s plane as she flew from the Cook Islands to Australia for a brief refueling stop en route to Indonesia.
SECRETARY CLINTON: (In progress.) It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council Forum: Commitment to Connectivity. And we are so honored to have three distinguished leaders here with us tonight. You will be hearing from each of them about the importance of advancing the ASEAN connectivity agenda and steps we can all take in government and in business, in ASEAN and in our individual countries to advance integration and economic engagement.
I’m very grateful to Prime Minister Hun Sen for hosting us and being with us. Cambodia has just completed the ASEAN ministerial, and we are grateful that you would find the time to come here and be with us, Prime Minister.
I also want to thank President Thein Sein, who has moved his country such a long distance in such a short period of time. And we are very much looking forward to hearing your comments. And Prime Minister Yingluck, it is always a pleasure to be with you and to work with you. Thailand is our oldest ally in the region, one of our oldest allies in the world, and we are honored that you are here.
I want to thank the ministers and ambassadors from across ASEAN who have joined us here in this historic city. And I especially want to thank Myron Brilliant from the Chamber of Commerce and Alex Feldman from the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council.
And finally, a very warm welcome to all the representatives from the private sector. Here tonight are dozens of leaders of ASEAN companies from all over the ASEAN region, in addition to dozens of leaders from American companies. By our count, this is the largest U.S.-ASEAN business event ever assembled. And I assume that will be a challenge so that the next events will be even bigger as we see the results of our efforts.
As Myron said, you know that we are certainly elevating our engagement across the board with Asia, and we’re paying particular attention to ASEAN and Southeast Asia. We’re pursuing a economic statecraft and jobs diplomacy agenda to promote sustainable growth and prosperity across the region and, of course, we know that by doing so it will help the countries of ASEAN, but it will also help the United States.
Our economic ties are already strong. ASEAN and the United States are large trading partners. Last year, U.S. exports to ASEAN exceeded $76 billion, and that was up 42 percent since 2009. We have more than twice as much investment in ASEAN as we do in China. So there is a great deal of potential for continuing to grow our economic activity.
We want to do more to deepen our economic partnership. For example, with our ASEAN Single Window and other ADVANCE programs, we are working with ASEAN to develop a fully integrated market by harmonizing customs and improving regulatory standards. And later this fall, our trade ministers will gather here in Siem Reap to discuss ways to advance our Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the operating system of our economic partnership.
I’m also very convinced that by promoting economic activity in the region, it is not only about encouraging businesses to invest and trade, it is also about building relationships. And the best way to do that is to be sure that we promote a rules-based system, because the difference between a region on the path to sustainable growth and one whose gains will be more short term are the norms and the standards for intellectual property protection, for predictability in setting rules, and enforcing laws to try to ensure a level playing field for everyone.
And we want ASEAN and the Asia Pacific to be open for business to everyone willing to work hard and make those investments. And we want especially to encourage entrepreneurs, because after all, that’s where the new ideas come from; that’s where the new businesses start; that’s where small and medium-sized enterprises really get their impetus for growth.
I gave a speech in Hong Kong last July describing what we hoped will be a thriving economic system across the Asia Pacific. It came down to four key attributes: openness, freedom, transparency, and fairness. And we believe that those all go together.
So let us work and try to determine the best way to increase that connectivity, increase those relationships, make those investments, and really build sustainable economies, jobs here, jobs back home in the United States, and the kind of future that we want in the 21st century for the people of the ASEAN nations.
Let me just set the stage for all three speakers. We will hear first from the Prime Minister of Cambodia. Cambodia has achieved tremendous economic progress during the tenure of Prime Hun Sen, and the United States is proud of our economic partnership. The United States is the number one importer of Cambodian-made garments – and this is a shameless plug, but I will say it anyway – thanks to trade deals we did back in the 1990s. (Laughter.) And those trade deals included labor and workplace standards, so the now 350,000 Cambodians, 90 percent of whom are young women, working in the textile industry in Cambodia have seen tremendous advances. Now, Cambodia will see the first to say they have more to do and they are working on that, but we want to continue to support their economic progress.
We also want to point to one other example of an innovative partnership with American business – General Electric is finalizing a rice-husk biomass integrated power project, the first in the region. What a great idea for ASEAN countries, particularly in the Lower Mekong, to use rice husks to generate energy. So this has got great potential.
We’ll next hear from the Prime Minister of Thailand, whose leadership has helped her country recover from the effects of the devastating floods last year and achieve economic growth at the start of this year. We are working to link Thai and American businesses through several public-private partnerships: Google is helping to connect more than 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses throughout Thailand; MasterCard is working with the Bank of Thailand to promote electronic mobile banking training; and Coca-Cola is creating an upcoming women’s entrepreneurship fund. So we’re very pleased that Prime Minister Yingluck could join us.
And finally, we will hear from President Thein Sein. This week has been a milestone in the relationship between our two countries. Just two days ago, President Obama announced that the United States is easing restrictions to allow more U.S. companies to do business there. And a few months ago in Washington, I urged American businesses to invest and to do it responsibly. Under Secretary Bob Hormats, who is here today, will be taking the largest U.S. business delegation – over 70 businesses – tomorrow to meet with officials, to meet with businesses, to meet with civil society. And we’re excited by what lies ahead, and we’re very supportive of President Thein Sein’s economic and political reforms.
And finally, I want to thank everyone from the private sector and the organizations involved and ASEAN and my team at the State Department, led by Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell, for understanding that connectivity is a word that has to have meaning. And much of that meaning comes from greater relationships between our governments, between our private sectors, between our civil societies, and most importantly, between and among our people.
So it’s very exciting to see everything that is happening here. And now it is my pleasure to introduce our host this evening, Prime Minister Hun Sen. (Applause.)
That’s Vietnamese FM Pham Binh Minh with whom she’s toasting. No matter how long and hard her day, she always sparkles like the champagne at these affairs.
Thank you very much, Secretary del Rosario, and let me express my pleasure at being here today. This is my fourth U.S.-ASEAN post-ministerial conference. And it gives us the chance to mark 35 years of partnership between ASEAN and the United States and to affirm and strengthen our ties. I want to thank our host, the Government of Cambodia, and for their preparations and their hospitality we are very appreciative. And let me also thank the foreign secretary in the Philippines, our country coordinator for the last three years, and to all of the colleagues around the table.
I also want to acknowledge that we are looking forward to working with the incoming country coordinator, Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, and really are very appreciative of the work that we are doing to prepare for the close coordination with our colleagues from Nay Pyi Taw. And I look forward to discussing with the ministers here next steps in response to and in support of the important reform efforts that Nay Pyi Taw is taking.
The United States has an enduring commitment to the Asia Pacific and the Obama Administration has elevated our engagement across Asia as a strategic priority of our foreign policy. A central pillar of that strategy is to work more closely with ASEAN, to deepen our economic, strategic, and people-to-people engagement. As Secretary of State, I’ve been a strong supporter of ASEAN and I understand that ASEAN faces a variety of challenges and even growing pains as it adapts and takes on new responsibilities. But I believe 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. The work that we are doing here today and over the next two days is a testament to that, and the United States has a stake in ASEAN’s success. The positions that ASEAN takes, the decisions it makes, and how it makes them will have a great bearing on the future effectiveness of ASEAN.
When I’m asked in my country why I put so much emphasis on ASEAN, I tell people that we work with ASEAN on the issues that are of central importance to the United States, from maritime security to nonproliferation to economic growth. We have more investment in ASEAN than we have in China. That is a surprising fact to many people in our country. And we are working cooperatively and collaboratively on opportunities and challenges in the Asia Pacific region, because we believe, like all of you, that so much of the future will be determined in this region. So we have sought to hear your concerns and priorities, to work with you to advance them, and to be a good partner. What we have heard from you is that ASEAN and the countries of the Asia Pacific are seeking greater American engagement across the board. But you are particularly focused on areas where our presence at times has been underweighted.
On the economic front, there is much more room for us still to grow together, so we are working to foster more economic activity in very tangible ways. This week, I’ve assembled and led the largest ever delegation of American business executives to Cambodia, and we will attend the first U.S.-ASEAN Business Forum on Friday in Siem Reap to lay the groundwork for economic connections and mutual prosperity for a long time to come.
On development assistance, frankly speaking, people in the region are asking us to put our money where our mouth is, to borrow an American phrase. So we’ve created an initiative to reform and reinvigorate our assistance programs to ASEAN. It’s called the Asia Pacific Strategic Engagement Initiative, or APSEI. APSEI seeks to align our resources with the priorities we are pursuing in partnership with the countries around this table.
We are focused on six pillars: regional security cooperation, economic integration and trade, engagement in the Lower Mekong region, transnational threats, democratic development, and war legacies. We’re working not only on a bilateral basis but also regionally in order to get the best possible results. This adds up to a robust, systematic assistance package that will secure sustained levels of American support for the things we all care most about. Later this week here at ASEAN and at the Regional Forum, I will offer a down payment on APSEI, and in the coming months we’ll be able to talk more about this initiative and its resources.
On disaster relief, this is something I care deeply about, and I know that you and your citizens do as well. Natural disasters are one of the most significant challenges to the stability, development, and prosperity of the ASEAN nations. From the tsunami in Aceh in 2004 to the floods in the Philippines and Thailand last year, the United States has been a committed first responder. And last year, President Obama announced a Rapid Disaster Response Agreement, which establishes a legal framework that will lead to more effective deliveries of supplies, service, and personnel. Laos and Singapore have already endorsed this agreement; we are close to concluding it with the Philippines; and I encourage other ASEAN members to review it.
And then there are people-to-people initiatives, and I have to say that the one request I hear consistently as I travel throughout Southeast Asia is that people in this region want more opportunities to interact with Americans and to visit America, particularly young people. And of course, young people are the majority of the people in the ASEAN nations. So I strongly support this outreach. And we have created a U.S.-ASEAN Young Leaders Summit to connect our next generation of leaders. This fall, the United States will welcome the first students to Hawaii under the Brunei-U.S. English language initiative. We have also created a pilot program for a new Fulbright-ASEAN exchange to deepen our educational ties.
Now, on this particular issue, I could go on and on. There has been a flourishing of programs and partnerships among our nations during the past few years, all designed to bring us and especially our people closer together. And they are possible because of the foundation we have laid in forums like this one.
So the United States is committed to our partnership, and we welcome the contributions of other ASEAN dialogue partners, and we are invested in the future peace, stability, and prosperity of this region. We look forward to many more collaborative activities with our partners in ASEAN for years to come. Thank you very much, Secretary del Rosario.
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