US-Asean relations

Article: "Bush tells of 'strategic dialogue' with PM Lee"
I agree that strong bilateral relations are important as both countries can focus on wider issues instead of discussing bilateral ties. Since the relations have been very strong between Singapore and America, I feel that both countries have more opportunities to discuss about important plans that can benefit both countries. They do not need to worry about building strong bilateral relations or to cope with any problems between both countries. They can then carry on with their own plans. Thus, both countries have already started discussing on wide-ranging issues spanning the Middle East, North Korea and Asia.

Although America's relations with Singapore are important, Singapore as well as the other South-east Asian countries' ties with China and Japan have to be strong for South-east Asia to prosper and cooperate well as a group. I also agree with PM Lee that America should not only strengthen ties with Asean as a group, but also with individual member countries as this would definitely benefit both America and Asean.

The US president is attending the US-Asean Commemorative Summit in Singapore so this tells us that South-east Asia is an important friend to America. However, America and Asean have to keep improving their relations even though they have been strong. This is to ensure that both parties continue to work together very often. Education is a possible aspect that can be discussed among these countries because it is an investment in people to people relations for the long term. There are also other areas that these countries can focus on. Now, they have to come up with innovative ideas to work on areas like education. If both parties can work together more often, it would definitely not be difficult to stay in close contact. In this way, US-Asean relations can take another step forward.