Barack Obama hosts ASEAN leaders; China in focus

The US and ASEAN nations can advance a shared vision of a regional order where disputes are resolved through peaceful means, President Barack Obama has said as he welcomed leaders from the region for talks expected to discuss Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Hosting 19 leaders of the ASEAN countries for the summit, Obama said, "Few regions present more opportunity to the 21st century than the Asia Pacific."

"Together, we can also continue to increase our security cooperation to meet shared challenges," he said as he welcomed leaders of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia at Rancho Mirage in California.

In recent years, the US has increased its maritime security assistance to its allies and partners in the region, improving mutual capabilities to protect lawful commerce and to respond to humanitarian crisis, he said.

"Here at this summit, we can advance our shared vision of a regional order where international rules and norms, including freedom of navigation, are upheld and where disputes are resolved through peaceful, legal means," Obama said.

This is for the first time that the US President has hosted ASEAN leaders for a summit meeting.

Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, where China and several Southeast Asian states have conflicting and overlapping claims, is expected to figure in the joint declaration of two-day summit.

"I'm very confident that, among other topics that we will discuss during the next day and a half, this (the South China Sea) will be an important one -- by no means the only one," National Security Advisor Susan Rice told reporters

"I'm confident that our shared commitment to upholding these norms will be reinforced," she said in response to a question.

"We will be continuing to work with our ASEAN partners on a potential statement that we might issue together. This statement will cover a wide range of topics. It won't be focused primarily on the South China Sea," she said in response to a question.

"We obviously have issued such statements in the past

with ASEAN, and in it we consistently underscore our shared commitment to a peaceful resolution of disputes, freedom of commerce and navigation, the rule of law, and the necessity of disputes being resolved through peaceful, legal means," Rice said.

"We also have expressed concerns about efforts to resolve disputes through other means, and we'll continue to do so," she said.

Observing that America's ties with Asia has expanded dramatically in the seven year of the Obama Administration, Rice said ASEAN is an increasingly important partner in addressing regional and global challenges -- from maritime disputes to climate change, pandemic disease to violent extremism, sustainable development to trafficking in persons.

During the summit, she said, the leaders would discuss their shared interest in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, encouraging peaceful resolution of disputes, and combatting terrorism, pandemic disease, climate change, and trafficking in persons.

All countries were represented by their leader, except Myanmar, who sent Vice President Nyan Tun. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also turned up, reversing an earlier decision not to come.

Rice said North Korea is a topic of interest to the entire region, certainly to the US and its allies in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

"So we will continue our work to contain and reduce the threat posed by North Korea. We'll do it both in the context of our discussions here on the margins -- this is not a topic formally on the agenda -- but more urgently, as we have done bilaterally and trilaterally in our cooperation with the Korean government in Seoul and Japanese government as well," she said.