US President Joe Biden to host ASEAN summit

Tags: Summits International News

US President Joe Biden will host leaders and top officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Washington DC.

• Washington has focused on the Russo-Ukraine war as well as battling Chinese influence in the Indo Pacific.

• The ASEAN "special summit" was postponed from late March just days before Biden's first visit to Asia as president.

• ASEAN member state Myanmar, whose government was toppled on 1 February last year, will not participate in the summit.

• The US wanted an 'apolitical' representative from Myanmar to attend the meeting.

• ASEAN's 'five-point Consensus' to end the turmoil in Myanmar has not progressed since its release in April last year.

• About ASEAN

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is an international organisation formed in Bangkok,Thailand in 1967.

• It promotes economic development, peace, security, social progress and cultural development in the Southeast Asian region.

• ASEAN Secretariat – Indonesia, Jakarta.

• General Secretary of ASEAN - Lim Jock Hoi, Brunei

• Official Languages - Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Khmer, Lao, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese

• Working Language -  English

• ASEAN Summit is the supreme policy making body of ASEAN. 

• ASEAN is third largest market in the world 

• It is the sixth largest economy in the world, third in Asia.

• ASEAN has Free-trade agreements (FTAs) with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

• ASEAN Member Countries

• Indonesia

• Malaysia

• Philippines

• Singapore

• Thailand

• Brunei

• Vietnam

• Laos

• Myanmar

• Cambodia