United States President Joe Biden will host a special in-person summit with ASEAN leaders on May 12-13, a White House statement said Saturday. "The Special Summit will demonstrate the United States' enduring commitment to ASEAN, recognizing its central role in delivering sustainable solutions to the region's most pressing challenges, and commemorate 45 years of US-Asean relations," the statement by White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. According to Psaki, President Biden will host the Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the aforementioned date as the summit will commemorate 45 years of US-ASEAN relations. "It will build on President Biden's participation in the October 2021 US-ASEAN Summit, where the president announced $102 million in new initiatives to expand our engagement with ASEAN on COVID-19 recovery and health security, fighting the climate crisis, stimulating broad-based economic growth, promoting gender equality, and deepening people-to-people ties. "It is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration to serve as a strong, reliable partner in Southeast Asia. Our shared aspirations for the region will continue to underpin our common commitment to advance an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, secure, connected, and resilient." Established in 1967, ASEAN includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and Myanmar. The earlier summit between Biden and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) slated for the end of March was postponed due to scheduling rifts. Biden had invited leaders of the 10-member Southeast Asian bloc for a summit on March 28-29. The US sees the region as critical to its efforts to push back against China's rising power in the South China Sea and across the Indo-Pacific region. — Agencies
