U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Veronica Pedrosa of Al-Jazeera English

Scot Marciel, U.S. Ambassador for ASEAN Affairs
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
May 7, 2008

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PEDROSA: Can you go into more detail about the importance of ASEAN to U.S. national interests, because it seems that the focus of U.S. foreign policy in this region has been very much on the north, on Northeast Asia -- on the economic giants of China, Japan, and even India. But, sort of, Southeast Asia is this kind of forgotten corner that's rather poor and very diverse. What is it? It's home to us. What is it to the United States?

AMBASSADOR MARCIEL: Well we see it as very dynamic and very important -- almost 600 million people who, together, are our 4th largest export market, a huge market. We have about 4 times more direct U.S. investment in the ASEAN region than we do in China. So, commercially it's hugely important. Politically it's important; diplomatically it's important. Two ASEAN countries are on the U.N. Security Council. So we have tremendous relations, a lot of areas to work with ASEAN on, and the ASEAN nations, and it's been important to us for a long time. And now that ASEAN itself as an institution is taking on a greater role, we want to engage more with ASEAN.

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