ASEAN Regional Forum Senior Officials’ Meeting

Office of the Spokesperson

Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kin Moy participated in a Senior Officials Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF) on June 28. Senior Bureau Official Moy emphasized the Biden-Harris administration’s priority to revitalize our multilateral partnerships to advance our shared prosperity, security, and values in the Indo-Pacific.  He highlighted ongoing U.S. support for ASEAN, the ARF, and the East Asia Summit, and underscored the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to ASEAN centrality and ASEAN’s essential role in the Indo-Pacific’s architecture. He noted that the administration is looking forward to sustained engagement with our partners and allies in ASEAN and throughout the region.

Senior Bureau Official Moy drew attention to U.S. efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including providing more than 500 million vaccine doses, and $2 billion to Gavi in support of COVAX to buy vaccines for the world.

Senior Bureau Official Moy called for greater transparency and support for the rules-based international order in the region, including in the South China Sea.  Moy also emphasized U.S. efforts to combat transnational crime in the Mekong sub-region through the Mekong-U.S. Partnership.

Senior Bureau Official Moy discussed important regional issues, including efforts to press the Burmese military to cease violence, adhere to ASEAN’s five-point consensus, and provide for a swift return to democracy; China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, its undermining of democracy in Hong Kong, and its destabilizing actions in the South China Sea and Mekong subregion; as well as our goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.