Obama hosts Southeast Asian leaders in first summit to promote economic ties

Obama’s return for the ASEAN summit has been viewed in some quarters as “poking a stick at China”, said James Keith, the US ambassador to Malaysia from 2007-2010. The Philippines’ outgoing president is expected to raise political and security concerns at an upcoming regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in the United States, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

Under the Obama Administration, the U.S. has strongly backed Asean’s central role at the heart of the evolving institutional architecture of the Asia-Pacific region including East Asia Summit (EAS).

“It is cold there”.

While American officials have said the Sunnylands talks were not about China, state media responded with scepticism.

Underscoring the relaxed atmosphere, all leaders wore open-collar shirts with their suits.

ASEAN summit in California, Obama in attendance.

Alexander Feldman, president and CEO of the Washington-based US-ASEAN Business Council representing American businesses in Southeast Asia, said the addition of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines would be a substantial boost to the Trans Pacific Partnership. “We’ll do it both in the context of our discussions here on the margins – this is not a topic formally on the agenda – but more urgently, as we have done bilaterally and trilaterally in our cooperation with the Korean government in Seoul and Japanese government as well”, she said. And our sustained engagement is delivering concrete results that benefit all of us – momentum that we can build on here at this summit.

Participants will discuss economic and trade affairs, particularly the implementation of the TPP, during the first working day on the theme “Promoting Regional Prosperity through Innovation and Entrepreneurship”.

China has been building artificial islands there over the last few years, angering neighboring countries by infringing on their sea borders. Other than the standard somber and polite statement from the White House, the president did not address the court, now split between red and blue 4-4.

The leaders are expected to talk on various issues ranging from economy, terrorism and security.

Growing tensions in the South China Sea have prompted a greater US presence in the region, including the deployment of a USA spy plane off the island of Singapore in December. While nations may look to the U.S.to help stand up to China’s assertive behavior, they still count China as their main trading partner.

The U.S. has long argued for the maritime rights issue to be resolved peacefully and is looking for ASEAN to take a unified stance on the issue. White House officials also expressed concern about some of the Asean countries’ human-rights record. The two countries are the destination for large flows of Chinese investment.

“It is absolutely the case that you see a variance of where countries are”, Rhodes said. One of them, Myanmar’s Thein Sein, skipped the summit entirely and and sent a deputy instead.

Though China was not mentioned in Mr Obama’s opening remarks on Monday, he did make reference to the need for stability in the region. Indonesian authorities said that IS funded a suicide attack that hit a Starbucks in Jakarta last month, the first major terrorist attack in the capital city in six years. Police said the attackers were linked to IS.

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, have all reported citizens traveling to fight in Iraq and Syria, and several small militant groups in the Philippines have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.