The U.S. will enhance engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and both sides agreed to hold a second meeting next year, said a joint statement issued Sunday after the first meeting was held here between presidents and prime ministers of the ASEAN and U.S. President Barack Obama.
With a mention of the dialogue relations over the last 32 years between the ASEAN and the U.S., the statement said the ASEAN is satisfied with the mutually beneficial cooperation with the U.S. in many areas.
The U.S. welcomed ASEAN's plans to achieve an ASEAN Community by 2015 based on the ASEAN Charter and expressed support for the establishment of the ASEAN intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.
The ASEAN and the U.S. called for broader and deeper cooperation, the statement said.
The meeting, called for by U.S. President Barack Obama who was in Singapore Sunday for the APEC meetings, was the first ever of the top
leaders of the U.S. and Myanmar governments.
The statement hoped the U.S. and ASEAN can play a role in broad political and economic reforms in Myanmar and underscored the need to hold a free, fair, inclusive and transparent election in Myanmar in 2010.