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Published on July 16, 2007

It is sad that the future relationship between Asean and the United States will largely have to do with the planned visits of US senior officials to the region, although such trips are a tangible demonstration that Washington is indeed paying attention to Asean. However, any failure to realise those visits will have the opposite effect. Thus when the news came that President George W Bush was cancelling a scheduled visit to Singapore for a summit meeting with Asean leaders on September 5, there were sighs of disbelief followed by huge disappointment in most Asean capitals.

The meeting date is only a few weeks away. Bush is not cancelling the Apec meeting, but Washington still has the audacity to call off the meeting with the Asean leaders. As if to rub salt into the wound, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice currently has no plan to attend the Asean Regional Forum - the only region-wide security dialogue opportunity - which will be held in early August in Manila. Rice missed the ARF gathering in 2005 in her first year in the job, when Laos hosted the meeting.

Asean-US ties are 30 years old. It is one of the world's oldest dialogue partnerships. Still, the Asean-US leaders have not yet institutionalised summit-level meetings - unlike China, Japan, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and other dialogue partners that are happy to associate with the top leadership level of Asean. The so-called "Asean plus one" summit with the US has been quite elusive.

Leaders from both sides have held talks while attending the annual leaders' meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. But the US president has never met all the Asean members at once. Singapore, as host, had been hoping that this time it could bring together all Asean members to talk with President Bush face-to-face. If such a summit meeting could have taken place, it would have been for the betterment of all. Nobody knows if Bush will be able to make it in November when the Asean leaders meet in Singapore to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of Asean.

For decades, Asean-US friendship has been shaped by the political oppression within Burma. Long before Burma's admission to Asean in 1997, the crisis in the country was a bone of contention between the US and the regional grouping. In May 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy won a general election but the military junta refused to acknowledge the victory. Since then the US has maintained a hard-line position against Burma, and its strong views are not lost on Asean. After nearly two decades, while Burma remains an impediment, both sides are still getting used to their common positions. Yet they still hope to move forward on cooperation. Meanwhile, any hope Asean might have had of Burma changing for the better has been dashed by peer pressure. Asean has learned the hard way that even while Burma is a member, it acts as it wishes without conforming to Asean principles and norms.

Meanwhile, Washington devised a long-term plan to help Asean with economic integration. Member countries that are ready to enhance economic cooperation with the US are welcome to do so. If their economic cooperation with the US proves effective, then it could lead to some form of free trade agreement.

As the US struggles with its ties with Asean, China, another dialogue partner with only a decade-old friendship, is consolidating its partnership with the regional grouping. Chinese leaders have unfailingly attended Asean summits. Indeed, they have used, quite effectively, all available regional venues to show that China's role in the region would be that of engagement and commitment. China has more cooperative programmes covering the whole gamut of bilateral cooperation, which of late also includes cultural and media development.

So again this year the US could lose a good opportunity to further strengthen ties and cooperation with Asean. Already, the US is lagging behind because of its focus on the Middle East and the Iraq war. Eventually, this will affect other aspects of its relations in the future, especially in the counter-terrorism campaign. In the region, Asean leaders believe in the saying that "out of sight" will result in "out of mind". Be seen and be heard are still valuable mottoes in Asean.