IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 311 
Recognizing that for 50 years the Association of South East Asian Nations 
(ASEAN) has worked toward stability, prosperity, and peace in Southeast 
Asia. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 3, 2017 
Mr. CASTRO of Texas (for himself and Mrs. WAGNER) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing that for 50 years the Association of South East 
Asian Nations (ASEAN) has worked toward stability, 
prosperity, and peace in Southeast Asia. 
Whereas the United States and the Association of South East 
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ten members—Brunei, 
Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Phil-
ippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—have worked 
together to advance our shared goals for 40 years, having 
established dialogue relations on September 10, 1977, 
with the issuing of the 1977 Joint Communique of the 
First ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue, and the United States ac-
ceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-
east Asia (TAC) at the ASEAN Post Ministerial Con-
ference Session with the United States in Thailand on 
July 22, 2009; 
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Whereas the United States was the first non-ASEAN country 
to appoint an ambassador to ASEAN on April 29, 2008, 
and the first dialogue partner to establish a permanent 
mission to ASEAN in 2010; 
Whereas the United States has supported efforts to strength-
en the ASEAN Secretariat and expand its role in pro-
viding greater coordination among, and enhancing the ef-
fectiveness of, regional institutions; 
Whereas, working together, the Governments and people of 
the United States and ASEAN can help realize their 
common vision of a peaceful, prosperous, rules-based 
Asia-Pacific region that offers security, opportunity, and 
dignity to all of its citizens; 
Whereas ASEAN’s ten members, taken collectively, are the 
seventh-largest economy in the world, with an annual 
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.4 trillion, and rep-
resent the United States fourth-largest export market 
with total two-way trade in goods and services reaching 
$254 billion and accounting for more than 500,000 jobs 
in the United States; 
Whereas ASEAN’s ten members represent a diverse group of 
nations and dynamic economies with an expanding work-
force, a growing middle class, and a diverse set of skills, 
cultures, and resources; 
Whereas ASEAN is home to critical global sea lanes located 
at the center of the world’s strongest economic growth 
area, with $5.3 trillion of global trade and more than half 
of total shipped tonnage transiting through ASEAN’s 
waters each year; 
Whereas ASEAN, taken collectively, is the third-fastest grow-
ing economy in Asia after China and India, expanding by 
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30 percent since 2007 and exceeding the global growth 
average for the past ten years; 
Whereas the ASEAN Economic Community aims to create 
one of the largest single market economies in the world, 
facilitating the free movement of goods, services, and pro-
fessionals and engendering a sense of economic commu-
nity among its member states; 
Whereas the United States is the largest investor in South-
east Asia, with total foreign direct investment stock of 
nearly $226 billion in 2014, creating millions of jobs in 
the United States and in ASEAN member states, while 
investment in the United States from Southeast Asia has 
increased more than any other region’s investment in the 
past decade; 
Whereas the United States has helped ASEAN create a Sin-
gle Window customs facilitation system that will aid in 
expediting intra-ASEAN trade and make it easier for 
United States businesses to operate in the region; 
Whereas the U.S.-ASEAN Business Alliance for Competitive 
SMEs has already trained 4,600 small to medium enter-
prises, with nearly half of the individuals trained being 
young women entrepreneurs; 
Whereas United States-ASEAN development cooperation has 
focused on innovation and capacity-building efforts in 
technology, education, disaster management, food secu-
rity, human rights, and trade facilitation; 
Whereas the Lower Mekong Initiative, established on July 
23, 2009, is a multinational effort that helps promote 
sustainable economic development in mainland Southeast 
Asia to foster integrated, multisectoral, subregional co-
operation and capacity building; 
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Whereas the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the 
South China Sea (DOC) was signed by all members of 
ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on 
November 4, 2002, committing ASEAN and the PRC to 
‘‘exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that 
would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace 
and stability,’’ and reaffirming ‘‘that the adoption of a 
code of conduct in the South China Sea would further 
promote peace and stability in the region and agree to 
work, on the basis of consensus, toward the eventual at-
tainment of this objective’’; 
Whereas the leaders of the United States and ASEAN, at 
their Special Leaders Summit in Sunnylands, California, 
on February 16, 2016, reaffirmed their shared commit-
ment to maintain peace, security, and stability in the re-
gion. 
Whereas the United States supports the East Asia Summit 
(EAS) as the premier leaders-led forum for dialogue and 
cooperation on political, security, and economic issues in 
the region and commends the direction set in the Kuala 
Lampur Declaration at the EAS 10th anniversary, in-
cluding the new exchange mechanism for EAS members’ 
ambassadors; 
Whereas ASEAN is a partner to the United States on key 
transnational challenges, such as terrorism, violent extre-
mism, environmental degradation, pollution, energy, in-
fectious diseases, disarmament, proliferation of weapons 
of mass destruction, cybersecurity, trafficking in persons, 
illicit trafficking of wildlife and timber, and illegal, un-
regulated, and unreported fishing; 
Whereas the United States, ASEAN, and other Dialogue 
Partners, through the 2015 East Asia Summit, adopted 
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a statement on transnational cyber issues that empha-
sizes the importance of regional cooperation to improve 
the security and stability of cyber networks, setting an 
important precedent for strengthening practical coopera-
tion, risk reduction, and confidence building in cyber-
space; 
Whereas the 2016 East Asia Summit in Vientiane adopted a 
statement on nonproliferation that reaffirmed the United 
States, ASEAN, and other Dialogue Partners’ leaders’ 
support for efforts at the national, regional, and inter-
national level to promote nuclear disarmament, nuclear 
nonproliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and 
reiterated the importance of nuclear security to com-
bating nuclear terrorism; 
Whereas North Korea’s provocative missile launches and nu-
clear tests highlighted the threat posed by its nuclear and 
ballistic missile programs and contradicts calls by 
ASEAN leaders at the 2016 East Asia Summit in Vien-
tiane for North Korea to abide by multiple United Na-
tions Security Council resolutions and international obli-
gations; 
Whereas the ASEAN region has experienced natural disasters 
including Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and Typhoon 
Haiyan in the Philippines; 
Whereas conservation and sustainable management of forests 
throughout ASEAN play an important role in helping to 
reduce the risks of extreme weather events and other nat-
ural disasters, and provide sustainable economic liveli-
hood opportunities for local communities; 
Whereas the United States will pursue initiatives that are 
consistent with broader sustainable development goals, 
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including the achievement of food security and poverty al-
leviation throughout the ASEAN region; 
Whereas the United States is a committed partner with 
ASEAN on the protection of human rights, which are not 
only essential for fostering and maintaining stability, se-
curity, and good governance, but protecting the basic 
rights and fundamental dignities of the people of 
ASEAN; 
Whereas, on November 18, 2012, ASEAN member states 
came together and adopted an ASEAN Human Rights 
Declaration that, by its own terms, ‘‘affirms all the civil 
and political rights’’ and the ‘‘economic social and cul-
tural rights’’ in the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights; 
Whereas the United States supports the work and mandate 
of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human 
Rights (AICHR), including capacity building for the pro-
motion and protection of human rights and the AICHR’s 
priorities programs, and activities; 
Whereas the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Program has 
now engaged over 100,000 people between the ages of 18 
and 35 across all ten ASEAN nations to promote innova-
tion among young people while also providing skills to a 
new generation who will create and fill the jobs of the fu-
ture; 
Whereas the irregular movement of persons continues to be 
one of the main security threats in the Southeast Asia re-
gion; 
Whereas addressing migration flows and combating human 
smuggling and human trafficking in ASEAN is an impor-
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tant, ongoing challenge requiring increased coordination 
and shared responsibility; 
Whereas, on November 21, 2015, ASEAN member states 
signed the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, which rep-
resents an important step forward in preventing human 
trafficking, prosecuting the perpetrators, and protecting 
the survivors; 
Whereas the United States supports ASEAN member states 
in anticorruption efforts through, among other initiatives, 
the implementation of the United Nations Convention 
Against Corruption; 
Whereas Vice President Pence traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, 
on April 20, 2017, where he met with the ASEAN Sec-
retary General and ASEAN Permanent Representatives, 
congratulated ASEAN on its 50th anniversary, and re-
marked on the 40th anniversary of the United States dip-
lomatic relationship with ASEAN, noting that the U.S.- 
ASEAN relationship has ‘‘without a doubt has benefitted 
both ASEAN and America—diplomatically, economically, 
and from the standpoint of national security’’; 
Whereas, on this visit, Vice President Pence pledged that the 
United States would ‘‘redouble our cooperation with 
ASEAN on issues of regional security’’ and continue to 
support ‘‘increased information sharing and security ef-
forts to protect our people and our way of life across the 
ASEAN region and across the wider world,’’ and ‘‘con-
tinue to work closely with ASEAN to promote peace and 
stability in the South China Sea by upholding a rules- 
based order, ensuring the lawful and unimpeded flow of 
commerce, and encouraging the peaceful and diplomatic 
resolution of disputes.’’; 
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