Bush to hold first summit with ASEAN countries
Agence France-Press
7 May 2007
Bush to hold first summit with ASEAN countries
WASHINGTON--- US President George W. Bush confirmed Friday that he will attend his first summit with all 10 Southeast Asian leaders, including the region’s most troublesome member, Myanmar, in September.
Bush told visiting Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House that he would attend the gathering on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Australia.
"Today I talked to Prime Minister Lee about America’s desire to stay in close contact with not only Singapore, but our partners in what we call the ASEAN nations," Bush said during a joint appearance with Lee.
"To this end, the prime minister has invited me, and I’ve accepted an invitation, to go back to Singapore to talk to our partners and friends about trade and security," said the US president.
"I encouraged the president to deepen and strengthen the already good ties between the Southeast Asian countries, ASEAN and America, both as a group and also bilaterally, individually, with single countries," said Lee.
"I suggested to the president that we should consider a suitable new initiative, which perhaps would be able to take our relations another step forward," the prime minister said without offering more details.
Bush has over the last couple of years met annually with leaders of seven ASEAN states — Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — which are also APEC members — at the sidelines of the forum’s annual talks.
ASEAN’s other members Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are not APEC members.
Myanmar has been a thorn in relations between ASEAN and Washington, which has imposed investment and trade sanctions on Yangon, where the ruling junta is accused of massive human rights violations, suppression of political dissent and refusal to bring democratic reforms. AFP
