SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good
afternoon everyone, and thank you so much 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.
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