Text 1734, 189 rader
Skriven 2005-11-17 23:33:06 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0511174) for Thu, 2005 Nov 17
====================================================

===========================================================================
Joint Vision Statement on the ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership
===========================================================================

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 17, 2005

Joint Vision Statement on the ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership



Recalling that the significant progress made in the relations between the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States since
1977 has contributed to the deepening of ties in all fields of cooperation,
and such has been nurtured through the annual ASEAN Post Ministerial
Conference, the ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue at senior officials' level, and other
fora;

Further recalling the meeting between Leaders of ASEAN Member Countries
which are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the
President of the United States during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting at
Los Cabos, Mexico on 26 October 2002, and the announcement by the United
States that year of the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI) and the ASEAN
Cooperation Plan (ACP) which have contributed to growing cooperation
between ASEAN and the United States in numerous areas of interest;

Welcoming the continuing progress in ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue Relations
recently, particularly following the meeting between the ASEAN Foreign
Ministers and the Secretary of State of the United States in New York on 12
September 2005;

Sharing a common desire to live with one another and with the world at
large in a just, democratic, and harmonious environment, and in this
context, recognizing that equitable, democratic, and caring societies are
the foundation for durable peace, stability, and shared prosperity;

Expressing the need to work closely to help alleviate poverty and address
development gaps in ASEAN, through sustained economic growth and enhanced
economic interaction and links between ASEAN and the United States, and
joint efforts in nurturing human, cultural, and natural resources for
sustainable development, and to further build on the existing friendship,
goodwill, understanding, and people-to-people linkages between ASEAN and
the United States;

Reaffirming support for the principles and purposes of the Charter of the
United Nations (UN) and other universally recognized principles of
international law;

Expressing a common interest in the development of ASEAN as a regional
institution that will effectively contribute to peace, prosperity, and
stability in Southeast Asia and the world, and recognizing the important
contribution of the United States to maintaining peace and stability and to
promoting prosperity;

Sharing a great interest in the success of ASEAN's efforts in pursuing
comprehensive integration towards the realization of an open and
outward-looking, dynamic and resilient ASEAN Community by 2020 and a
Southeast Asia bonded together in partnership as a community of caring
societies, as envisioned in the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II;

Expressing desire to further increase cooperation and friendship between
ASEAN and the United States to seize the opportunities and meet the
challenges of an increasingly interdependent world.

ASEAN and the United States hereby:

1. Agree to launch an ASEAN-United States Enhanced Partnership that is
comprehensive, action-oriented, and forward-looking, and comprising
political and security cooperation, economic cooperation, and social and
development cooperation including, but not limited to, the following
elements:

Political and Security Cooperation 2. Support the integration of ASEAN,
leading to an ASEAN Community through, inter alia, the implementation of
the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) and appropriate successor plans;

3. Acknowledge that the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia
(TAC) acts as a code of conduct governing inter-State relations in the
region for the promotion of peace and stability, and its role as a unifying
concept for ASEAN, and respect the spirit and principles of the TAC, in
line with the commitment of ASEAN and the United States to enhance their
partnership;

4. Support the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as the premier regional political
and security forum in the Asia-Pacific region with ASEAN as the driving
force;

5. Recognize the importance of non-proliferation in all aspects of nuclear
weapons in Southeast Asia;

6. Promote closer cooperation on combating transnational crimes, including
inter alia, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
illicit drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, and enhancing maritime
and border security, and express readiness to build on the ASEAN-United
States Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism
signed in Bandar Seri Begawan in 2002 to develop joint activities;

7. Cooperate in multilateral frameworks, including the UN, the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the APEC, emphasize the importance of ambitious
outcomes in the Doha Round that would bring tangible benefits to all,
support the early accession of Laos and Viet Nam to the WTO, and consider
the admission of ASEAN Member Countries that are not members of APEC into
that forum;

Economic Cooperation 8. Strengthen economic cooperation by, inter alia,
continuing to implement the EAI, which serves as a mechanism to enhance
trade and investment flows between ASEAN and the United States, and in this
regard, agree to work together to conclude a region-wide ASEAN-United
States Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA);

9. Further enhance economic linkages, which will assist in sustaining
economic growth in ASEAN and the U.S., and cooperate jointly in support of
ASEAN's realization of an ASEAN Economic Community by 2020, if not earlier;

10. Enhance economic cooperation in areas to be mutually agreed upon
between ASEAN and the U.S., including but not limited to trade and
investment facilitation; and undertake missions and measures to strengthen
the investment climate in ASEAN thereby encouraging U.S. investment into
the region;

11. Collaborate to reform and strengthen international financial
institutions in the areas of economic surveillance through the sharing of
macroeconomic and financial information where disclosure of information is
permitted by domestic laws and regulations of the respective countries, and
agree to work more closely in international financial institutions to
promote the influence of Asia to a level more commensurate with its
economic weight;

12. Promote greater interaction between their respective private sectors,
recognizing the pivotal role of the business community;

13. Pursue the development and deployment of cleaner, more efficient energy
technologies of all kinds, including renewable and other low-emitting
sources of energy, enhance ASEAN's regional energy infrastructure, promote
energy security, promote the protection of the environment and the
sustainability of natural resources, recognizing that economic growth is a
necessary condition for deploying the cleaner technologies needed for
continued environmental improvement, and pledge further collaboration in
all modes of transport, including air maritime and multimodal transport to
facilitate the movement of peoples and goods;

Social and Development Cooperation 14. Collaborate in the implementation of
the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) and its successor programmes or plans
so that ASEAN may accelerate its regional integration, recognizing the
importance of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and other
sub-regional growth areas which would bridge the development gaps within
ASEAN, and stress the importance of cooperation to promote sustainable
development;

15. Cooperate at the regional and global levels on disaster management,
including the development of regional and global standby arrangements for
disaster management and emergency response, and in this connection, welcome
the ASEAN Standby Arrangements for Disaster Relief and Emergency Response;

16. Resolve to work together to prevent the spread and reduce the harm of
HIV/AIDs, SARS, other infectious diseases and, on an urgent basis, develop
mechanisms for cooperation to contain outbreaks of avian influenza as well
as pledge cooperation to put in place systems and procedures to control
infectious diseases including animal diseases;

17. Foster and deepen cooperation in science and technology, and
information and communications technology and encourage people-to-people
interactions and exchanges as well as inter-faith dialogues, and promote
cooperation through networking activities and capacity building in
education such as student exchange, fellowship programme, academic
attachment and research collaboration, as well as promotion of ASEAN
studies in the U.S. and U.S. studies in ASEAN Member Countries;

18. Welcome the intention of the U.S. to foster educational exchanges and
the continuing efforts of the U.S. to strengthen its engagement with the
ASEAN Secretariat and support the capacity building of the Secretariat;

Follow-Up 19. Call on the ASEAN Foreign Ministers and the U.S. Secretary of
State, with the assistance of the senior officials, to develop a Plan of
Action to implement the ASEAN-United States Enhanced Partnership;

20. Call on the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) and the United States Trade
Representative (USTR) to meet and contribute to the implementation of the
ASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership and its Plan of Action.

# # #

===========================================================================
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051117-4.html

 * Origin: (1:3634/12)