SECRETARY BLINKEN: Prime Minister, thank you very much. Thank you for welcoming us back to Laos. And thank you for your leadership as ASEAN chair this year.
I also want to thank Dr. Kao for his stewardship of ASEAN, and also Cambodia - and Prime Minister Hun Manet, for serving as our U.S. country coordinator, something we deeply appreciate.
Prime Minister Ibrahim, I also want to say to you that we very much look forward to Malaysia taking over as chair next year.
I'm very honored to be here on behalf of President Biden. I also bring warm greetings from Vice President Harris, who represented the United States at last year's leaders' event.
Over the past four years, the U.S. and ASEAN have made our partnership stronger and more wide-ranging than it has ever been before. President Biden was honored to host ASEAN leaders for a Special Summit in Washington for the very first time - and to elevate the U.S.-ASEAN relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Every day, our cooperation is helping to better the lives of our combined one billion people - creating economic opportunity, fostering technological innovation, advancing a shared vision of an open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific, with ASEAN at its center.
We're strengthening the economic ties that have long brought our countries together. The United States remains the number one source of foreign direct investment in ASEAN countries. This is a meaningful measure of trust and confidence in the future. It's also a powerful generator of jobs and opportunity.
Together, we're improving monitoring infectious disease outbreaks; we're upgrading the region's power grids; we're fighting cybercrime and online scams; we're promoting safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence.
All this cooperation is rooted in the enduring bonds between our people, who - for decades now - have learned from one another, done business together. They've been enriched by each other's cultures.
We were proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative - an initiative that counts more than 160,000 online members and continues to grow.
Advancing our shared vision also means coming together to address shared challenges to that vision - from the deepening crisis in Myanmar, to the DPRK's destabilizing behavior, to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, which continues to violate principles at the heart of the United Nations Charter and at the heart of ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions in the South and East China Seas, which have injured people and harmed vessels from ASEAN nations, and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes. The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific.
We also believe it's important to maintain our shared commitment to protect stability across the Taiwan Strait.
But whether it's responding to urgent global challenges or advancing the shared hopes of our people, the relationship between the United States and ASEAN will continue to be essential. We look forward to this partnership growing even stronger in the years to come.
And I thank you again for your hospitality and for today.
