This week U.S. Vice
President Mike Pence visited the ASEAN Secretariat, becoming the
highest-ranking U.S. official to have visited ASEAN headquarters. Pictured below is Vice President Pence meeting
with ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh.
Vice President Pence also
met with the permanent representatives of the ASEAN member states and members
of the Young Southeast Asia Leaders Initiative, a U.S.-sponsored people-to-people
initiative.
The Pence visit should be viewed
as a positive diplomatic development.
First, the Trump
administration’s gesture of engaging with ASEAN as an institution should be
much appreciated by ASEAN. President
Obama visited Indonesia twice but never made an appearance at the ASEAN
Secretariat.
Second, Vice President Pence
announced that in November President Trump would attend both the APEC Summit in
Vietnam and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Manila. President Trump’s participation in both
meetings was not a given; President Obama missed 2 APEC summits and 3 EAS meetings
during his presidency.
Third, when combined with
the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting scheduled for May 4 with U.S. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson, these moves signal renewed attention to Southeast Asia as
a region.
For the United States, a
little goes a long way in ASEAN. Moves
such as the Pence visit matter in the region’s diplomatic circles; previous U.S.
absences from Asian regional meetings such as APEC and EAS were frequently
criticized. Moreover, U.S. support of
ASEAN economic integration initiatives such as the ASEAN Single Window promises
a big return for a small investment. A
fully functioning ASEAN Economic Community – one that operates both as a single
market and a single production base – represents a great opportunity for
American business.
Thus, the Pence visit and
its accompanying initiatives are a welcome signal that America’s relationship
with ASEAN remains a vital part of U.S. foreign policy.
