Hoping continued engagement with Obama's successor
Published on: Sunday, September 25, 2016
NEW YORK: Asean countries, including Malaysia, hope to work closely with the United States towards enhancing their strategic partnerships and fostering closer ties in all fields of mutual interest in America's post-presidential election.Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said they hoped whoever succeeds President Barack Obama would positively and actively engage the region in achieving such aim.He said they (Asean) appreciated and recognised US's constructive role in helping them to evolve a rules-based regional architecture via Asean-led mechanisms towards a greater sense of Asean's centrality and unity.
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"Our cooperation in regional and international issues, as well as on traditional and non-traditional challenges have continued to deepen to cover myriad issues including terrorism, cybersecurity, climate change, irregular migrants and maritime matters – just to name a few."Hence, we are looking forward to maintain the existing ties that enable us to work together and closely with the US by continuing to enhancing our strategic partnerships in many aspects that bring mutual benefits and interests," he said, in an informal Asean-US Ministerial meeting which he co-chaired with US Secretary John Kerry, here, Friday.It was the last time that Kerry was representing the US as Secretary of State as Americans are due to elect a new President in November.Anifah commended the efforts by Obama and Kerry who have rewarded them with excellent state of Asean-U.S. relations via the strategic partnerships that benefitted them.
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"We (Asean) will deeply miss Obama as he was instrumental and actively engaging the region again through his 'Pivot to Asia' during his tenure in the office."For instance, we had a fruitful 4th Asean-US Summit in Laos early this month which was unfortunately the last for Obama in his capacity as President where the leaders discussed the excellent state of our strategic partnership and ways to further strengthen our ties.
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"As a result, the U.S launched three new initiatives during the Summit, namely the USAID's (United States Agency for International Development) five-year counter wildlife trafficking programme, USAID's Clean Power Asia programme and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) World of Food Innovation Challenge."It was also under his (Obama's) watch that Asean-U.S Dialogue Relations were elevated to a strategic partnership," he said, adding Malaysia was pleased with the strategic partnership via USAID's initiatives along with burgeoning cooperation in all three pillars of the Asean Community.Meanwhile, Kerry said US Government viewed Asean as an influential organisation which is increasingly important to all their objectives and initiatives in Asia.He said Obama was the first US President to meet with all the Asean leaders and had established an excellent ties via its strategic partnerships in 2015.Furthermore, Kerry said there are evidences of Asean's growing roles in many aspects that are mutually important."In the aspect of economic ties, U.S. investment in Asean countries has almost doubled in just the past eight years, and we have launched a strategic framework for our engagement with the Asean Economic Community through the U.S.-Asean Connect Initiative."In addition, through President's Obama's Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), about 100,000 youths participated where the technical, economic and global strategic sensed these young people were extremely impressive," he said in the same event before hosting the meeting with Anifah here.Kerry said there is an increase in US-Asean ties on number of important issues which they work together that includes counterterrorism, climate change, human trafficking, cyber security and promotion of sustainable fishery practices, among others."On the South China Sea issue in regards to the disputes over territorial integrity, we (US) believe such vital issue be resolved peacefully and in accordance with clear legal principles and judgment, and not by coercion."We have an interest and I believe a shared interest in upholding international law and persuading all relevant nations to exercise restraint to reduce tensions."This is where Asean has a very clear role to play in security issues in the region by completing the good work of negotiating a meaningful code of conduct, discouraging the militarization of outposts, and respecting diplomatic and legal mechanisms," he said.On North Korea, Kerry said they also shared very similar interests and Asean as well as the whole world have the right to condemn North Korea's latest nuclear test as a threat to regional stability and is a blatant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions."The United States will do whatever is necessary to defend our own citizens and to honor our security commitments to our allies. So every country has a responsibility to cooperate in vigorously enforcing the sanctions that have been imposed by the UN Security Council and together, we have to ensure that North Korea pays a price for its dangerous actions."It is also important to make it clear that they need to come to the negotiating table and need to behave like every other law-abiding nation and work through the denuclearisation of the peninsula," he said.Kerry said such growing ties between US-Asean is also evident with Obama's decision last week to lift all remaining sanctions against Myanmar that shows U.S support in strengthening the democracy there and encouraging inclusive growth in spurring investment in the civilian economy."We have a lot to talk about much to gain by continuing to work together and this will be my final time representing the United States at a meeting with Asean as Secretary of State.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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