1 On behalf of my ASEAN colleagues, I extend a warm welcome to you and your colleagues Secretary Clinton to this Post Ministerial Conference. We are delighted by your presence, and look forward to a fruitful exchange on ways to strengthen ASEAN-US relations.
2 Historically, the US has played a pivotal role in the region's security and development. For a long time to come, the US will be the most important ultimate consumer of our economic output. US companies have done much to introduce new methods and technologies into Southeast Asia and integrate our economies. US colleges and universities have trained hundreds of thousands of our students, providing the knowledge and example we need to modernize our societies. The US is therefore an integral part of our past, our present and our future.
3 We meet amidst a global recession which poses unprecedented challenges to all of us. There is no decoupling. If anything, globalisation has coupled ASEAN and the US even closer together.
4 We see the US as the key pillar for stability in the region in the 21st century. Your presence in Asia helps to maintain the larger balance in the region; your economic strength is our hope for a quick recovery; your ability to renew yourself again and again, attracting talent from all over the world, inspires us.
5 Secretary Clinton, we appreciate the gestures you have made to show your commitment to ASEAN - including Southeast Asia on your first overseas visit as Secretary of State, including a visit to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, your early confirmation to attend this meeting in Thailand, and your accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia which we celebrate today.
6 Today, we also adopt the Revised Priorities for Cooperation under the ASEAN-US Enhanced Partnership. This document maps out our cooperation for the immediate future, underscoring US support for an ASEAN that is united and outward-oriented.
7 It has been Singapore's privilege to serve as ASEAN's country coordinator for the ASEAN-US dialogue partnership in the past three years. We hand over responsibility to the Philippines after this meeting and pledge our continuing support to this all-important relationship across the Pacific. It is a partnership we must continue to strengthen in the coming years.
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RESPONSE BY GEORGE YEO, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SINGAPORE AND CO-CHAIR OF ASEAN-US DIALOGUE RELATIONS TO OPENING REMARKS BY HILLARY CLINTON SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Thank you Secretary Clinton for your interest in establishing a permanent Mission to the ASEAN Secretariat. We know when the US first appointed an Ambassador to the ASEAN Secretariat, it started a domino effect. The result is that we have over twenty accreditations to ASEAN now and I am quite sure that this new leadership by you will also trigger off another domino effect which we in ASEAN welcome and which also encourages us to do even more to deepen our relationship with our dialogue partners. Thank you very much.