(VOVworld)- Expanding external relations and promoting ASEAN’s central role in the region’s evolving structure is high on the agenda of the 22^nd ASEAN Summit in Brunei. The US has become a key player among ASEAN’s major partners.  VOV editor Anh Huyen reports on the converging interests of ASEAN and the US.

Part of an increasingly dynamic Asia, ASEAN’s 10 members have a combined population of more than 600 million and GDP of 2.1 trillion USD a year. Founded 46 years ago, ASEAN has become one of the world’s most important organizations. The bloc is part of the international production network and plays the important role of a neutral party in Asia. ASEAN straddles important sea routes and nestles between the economic giants China and Japan in East Asia and India in South Asia. ASEAN’s energy-rich seas are giving it a growing strategic role in the world. The US is the world’s largest economy with a GDP of more than 15 trillion USD and the world’s largest total trade value at 3.7 trillion USD per year.

ASEAN and the US have developed a deep bilateral relationship. ASEAN’s investment in the US totals 153 billion USD, 3 times its 45 billion USD investment in China and nearly 10 times its 16 billion USD investment in India. This figure doesn’t include investment in oil and gas, which could double the bloc’s total investment in the US. The US is ASEAN’s largest market and ASEAN is the US’s 4^th largest market. Providing one third of the membership of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), ASEAN is currently promoting the establishment of a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Based on the ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the two sides are accelerating negotiations to sign a bilateral Free Trade Agreement in the near future. Economists say that by accelerating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), both sides can take advantage of trade barriers to limit the intrusion of Chinese goods to the US market and at the same time pave the way for Southeast Asian countries to penetrate this market. Thailand and the Philippines have long been the US treaty allies, and Singapore is a security and Free Trade Agreement partner with the US. Other ASEAN countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam, share important common interests with and have the potential to become closer security and strategic partners of the US in the near future. The US is already participating in a number of cooperation mechanisms with ASEAN including the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, the East Asia summit and the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting Plus. The US has developed bilateral and multilateral relations with ASEAN member countries in education, culture, human exchange, religion and belief dialogues, disaster risk management, health care, climate change, anti-drug smuggling and anti-terrorism. The US and ASEAN have long shared interests in maritime freedom in the East Sea, secured by international law and peaceful dispute resolution.

ASEAN and the US have demonstrated firm commitments to developing a long-term partnership. By connecting its interests with non-regional partners like the US, ASEAN can realize its policies, promote cooperation, build a community, and boost external relations in order to strengthen its role in the region. This is vital to realizing its goal of establishing a prosperous community by 2015.

Anh Huyen