US Eager To Show Commitment To Asean With Summit: Experts

The central message of this week's special summit between the United States and Asean will be America's enduring commitment to South-east Asia, said regional watchers ahead of the long-awaited high-level meeting.

- Charissa Yong

But while the summit offers an opportunity to underscore that commitment and deepen American engagement in the region, it may also highlight some uncomfortable differences between the two sides.

The summit officially commemorates 45 years of US-Asean ties and will take place in Washington tomorrow and on Friday, more than a year into the Biden administration. It was originally scheduled for late March but was postponed due to scheduling issues.

"The significance of the upcoming US-Asean Special Summit is that it is being held. The meeting is the message,” said retired diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

He noted that the summit was being held while war was still raging in Ukraine - an event that some had predicted would distract the US from South-east Asia, given how America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had previously turned its gaze from the region.

“Holding the US-Asean summit at this time underscores what ought to be obvious - that the US is in fact capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time and is not distracted,” Mr Bilahari said yesterday during a webinar by the Stimson Centre, a Washingtonbased international policy thinktank.