Leaders,
First of all, I wish to convey the warm greetings of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his deep regret for not being able to join this second ASEAN-US Leaders' meeting today. I assure you it was a very difficult decision, and through me President Yudhoyono wishes to reaffirm Indonesia's strong commitment to advance this important ASEAN-US partnership.

I join ASEAN Leaders in thanking President Obama for hosting this important meeting.

We are here to maintain the momentum of ASEAN-US Leaders meeting in Singapore last year. That meeting was a milestone because after a period of momentary uncertainty, ASEAN-US relations came to be up to the speed with the dynamic changes that are taking place in our region.

There is plenty of room for this partnership to grow because the area of common interests between ASEAN and the US has expanded significantly. We have many complex issues between us, but we also have an increasing array of win-win solutions.

As we chart our future course, there are THREE areas that our partnership must be relevant to.

First, it has to be relevant to the betterment of our people's lives. After all, that is precisely why we came up with the ASEAN Charter : to bring ASEAN down to earth to become a "people centered" organization.

This is why soft power has to be at the center of the new ASEAN-US partnership.

The United States has enormous soft power appeal in Southeast Asia but this has not necessarily translated into assets of progress. For example, 20 years ago, there were some 14,000 Indonesians students in the US, and almost none in China. Today, there are more Indonesians studying in China than in America.

Thus, ASEAN-US partnership has to translate into more exchanges, more scholarships, more educational cooperation, more cultural exposures, more media cooperation, more soft skill development.

One thing that the United States has in abundance is : technology. We know that technology will be the biggest driver of change in the 21st century - it will bring about empowerment, inclusion, progress. We would certainly welcome intensified cooperation in technological research and development.

We also need cooperation in the field of entrepreneurship, the ultimate life changing weapon. The United States has great experience in this and I know this happens to be President Obama's passion. There is much that we can do both ways to promote entrepreneurial development in Southeast Asian countries. More entrepreneurs mean more middle class and less poverty.

We also need to be able to deal better with non-traditional threats, the gravest hazard to our people's well being. The ASEAN-US Partnership must furnish a growing capacity to address the problems of terrorism, Avian flu, natural disasters, climate change, diseases, food shortage, energy insecurity, people smuggling, narcotics, and so on.

The second area ASEAN-US partnership must be relevant to is: regional architecture.
The regional architecture is fast evolving. Our regional dynamics is much more fluid than before. Relationships everywhere are changing. What used to be a divided Southeast Asia became ASEAN 10 and now becoming ASEAN Community.
Rising powers like China and India will continue to grow. A world order marked by fragile multipolarity is emerging.

The ASEAN-US partnership should be part of these larger efforts to maintain a dynamic equilibrium that provides a sense of common security for all. It is in that dynamic equilibrium that countries in the region may find peace and stability.

That is why we welcome the US joining the East Asia Summit beginning next year, along with Russia. We hope this will contribute to evolve a new regional architecture, while maintaining ASEAN centrality.

To strengthen this architecture, we count on US support for the attainment of the ASEAN Community.

Now is also the time for the United States to push for the long awaited ratification of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. After a lengthy hybernation, the ratification of UNCLOS by the US Senate would be a great boost to the strategic stability and maritime security in the Asia Pacific region.

The third area for ASEAN-US partnership is : global issues.

The financial crisis tops the list. Indonesia is pleased to be a member of the G20, but Indonesia has also pushed hard for ASEAN's participation in that forum. We hope ASEAN's participation in the G20 will be a permanent one.

On climate change, we have seen how difficult climate diplomacy can be: from Bali, to Poznan, to Copenhagen and next Cancun. No one can tell as yet what will happen in Cancun, but we can still do lots of environmental work. The US and ASEAN can work on forestry issues, where there is no shortage of projects. We also appreciate the United States support for the Coral Reef Triangle Initiative and the Heart of Borneo. Whatever it is, there are lots of creative opportunities for climate cooperation between us, be they in green energy, REDD plus, bioenergy, and so on.

Another global concern pertains to the issue of tolerance - or intolerance. Here, I wish to state on record how much we appreciate President Obama taking a strong stand on the issue of the Quran burning. This issue was very sensitive and potentially explosive to Muslims in my country, and I believe in others as well. Your strong principled statement helped to calm our Muslim citizens. The question is whether this is a one-off episode or something that will continue. But there is no doubt that we need to roll back Islamophobia, strengthen the voice of moderation and pluralism, while intensifying interfaith dialogue towards harmony among civilizations.

So yes, we have a rather long laundry list, reflective of our rich relationship. Nonetheless, I would counsel that we avoid becoming over ambitious in our projects of cooperation. ASEAN in the past has had the experience of coming up with ambitious plans which came short of expectation. It is better to begin with few priorities, with a concrete plan of action and a way to monitor progress, as we are presently doing. And then we can harvest this Partnership.

Thank you.