Tuesday, July 25, 2006

US, Asean to sign 5-year partnership

Kuala Lumpur (Agencies)

Southeast Asia’s regional grouping on Monday hailed a five-year action plan to boost trade, investment and political ties with the United States.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and US officials will Thursday sign the framework for the "Asean-US Enhanced Partnership," which they had agreed to work towards last November.

"I think it [the action plan] is good. The US is an important player in the world. It is the sole superpower," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is the current chair of the 10-member bloc.

"It is a broad framework. Among the areas it hopes to promote are economic and technical cooperation, to combat terrorism and the fight against HIV/AIDS," a Malaysian foreign ministry official added on condition of anonymity.

Under the plan, both sides will work towards an "Asean-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement that will serve as a mechanism to ease trade and investment flows.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It offers a combined market of more than 500 million people.

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