President Barack Obama of the United States and leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a joint statement at the conclusion of their two-day summit at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands on Feb. 16.
Known as the Sunnylands Declaration, the statement said the summit, a historic first gathering in the United States of ASEAN leaders, “marked a watershed year for both ASEAN and for the increasingly close U.S.-ASEAN strategic partnership.”
In a news conference televised to a live national audience from Sunnylands Center on Feb. 16, President Obama said:
“Here at Sunnylands, we agreed to a number of key principles, including the principle that ASEAN will continue to be central — in fact, indispensable — to peace, prosperity and progress in the Asia Pacific. When ASEAN speaks with a clear, unified voice, it can help advance security, opportunity and human dignity not only for the more than 600 million people across ASEAN, but for people across the Asia Pacific and around the world.”
ASEAN is comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
