It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to exchange views with my ASEAN colleagues. Our Meeting this afternoon gives us a change to reinforce and extend our constructive relationship.

For three decades, ASEAN has been a driving force for dialogue and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. Created in a period of regional strife, ASEAN has long recognized the value of a common approach to common challenges. By acting together, the six diverse ASEAN nations have made a singular contribution to shaping a strong regional identity based on the pursuit of converging interests.

Through ASEAN, the region's first inclusive security grouping was launched last year, signaling a commitment to consultation instead of confrontation on contentious issues like the Spratly Islands. Through ASEAN, old rivals have learned to work together in areas ranging from combating drug trafficking to building transportation networks. And through ASEAN, the circle of regional peace and prosperity has been expanded to reflect the changing face of Southeast Asia with Vietnam's admission as a full member. I look forward to my visit to Hanoi this weekend.

Strong ties with ASEAN are an essential element of America's engagement in the Asia-Pacific. The United States is committed to working with, ASEAN in a full and equal patnership that covers a broad range of shared security, economic, and political interests.

The United States is and will remain a pacific power. we will continue to maintain our security engagement in the region through our forward-deployed presence and our five bilateral treaty alliances. in Northeast ASIA, our alliances with japan and the Republic of Korea are the key stones of our commitmen. Our alliances with Thailand and the Philippines, together with Australia, anchor that commitment in Southeast Asia. We hold extensive military exercises with Thailand, including the Pacific Command's largest joint exercise, COBRA GOLD. And in the post-bases era, we are renewing our military-to-military relationship with the Philippines. We also continue to develop bilateral defense ties with our other ASEAN partners, supporting our forward-deployed military presence through access to host government facilities and commercial arrangements.

The United States and ASEAN work together to bolster security both in Southeast Asia and around the world. The indefinite and unconditional extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was a landmark achievement. And the Agreed Framework between the United States and North Korea helped avert an immediate nuclear crisis in Asian's neighborhood -- and a future threat to global security.

I want to thank the Government of Malaysia for hosting the United States and North Korea during our talks in May and June. As implementation of the Agreed Framework moves ahead, the United States will look to ASEAN for continued financial and political support for the Korean Economic Development Organization. Such support will be essential for successful implementation.

Security and stability in the entire Asia-Pacific are necessary to undergird Southeast Asia's remarkable prosperity. Just as the long-term U.S. security presence has helped to keep the peace, America's long-standing determination to keep its markets open have helped the ASEAN countries to transform themselves "from dominos to dynamos". With some of the highest savings, investment and growth rates in the world, the development of ASEAN's economies is a spectacular achievement. The ASEAN nations comprise a nearly half-trillion dollar regional economy that we expect to double in size over the next ten years.

Indeed, the economies of the United States and the ASEAN nations have grown together. Already, ASEAN as a whole is America's fourth largest trading partner. Two-way trade reached $84 billion in 1994, a 15 percent increase over 1993. We expect that trade to reach $100 billion within the next few years. And U.S. investment in the region has grown to more than $20 billion.

With rising per capita incomes, a burgeoning middle class, growing consumer sophistication. and enormous infrastructure demands, the ASEAN economies are the latest addition to the roster of Big Emerging Markets that American business and the U.S. Government believe are the most dynamic in the world. That addition also reflects our judgement that ASEAN's economic integration has moved forward so rapidly that a regional economic entity is fast emerging. The Clinton Administration will take concrete steps to reinforce its support for American investors and exporters in each of the ASEAN nations.

The commitment by your nations to reduce or eliminate tariffs throughout the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) by 2003 or even earlier, and to address a number of on-tariff barriers, will help inspire further liberalization bard even greater prosperity for the Asia- Pacific. At the same time, ASEAN's ability to meet several specific challenges will make it an even stronger magnet for investment and trade.

First, we are encouraged that AFTA is already addressing intellctual property rights -- to ensure protection for the innovation that is the lifeblood of all our economies. We also look to individual ASEAN nations to take additional steps on their own. Last November, Thailand enacted a new copyright law that we believe can serve as a model for the region. We hope that a patents law will be enacted as well. We are also encouraged by Malaysia's rigorous enforcement of its intellectual property rights laws.

Second, we would also welcome region-wide agreements on trade in services, especially financial services. While we were unable to come to closure during recent discussions in Geneva, I want to stress that the United States does want to work with ASEAN to find ways to open financial markets to foreign participation.

Third, the issue of government procurement merits a sharper ASEAN focus. The region's infrastructure needs are so large that governments are expected to award contracts that could exceed $30 billion a year. We urge ASEAN to establish transparent and consistent guidelines for the tendering and award process. Adherence to such guidelines will best serve the development needs of your nations and help to ensure fair practices in these intensely competitive markets.

Finally, we urge concerted international attention, in this and in every region of the world, to the problem of illicit payments. Bribery and corruption distort development, discourage foreign investors, and undermine the rule of law. That is why I have led an effort on behalf of the United States, to strengthen multilateral disciplines through the OECD. As booming, competitive economies, the ASEAN nations also have a responsibility for promoting competition that is fair and transparent.

ASEAN, of course, provided much of the impetus behind the creation of APEC six years ago as a framework for economic cooperation across the Asia- Pacific. APEC continues to strengthen patterns of economic integration and contribute to growth. Since the last APEC ministerial in Jakarta, intensive cabinet- level meetings between APEC's finance., transportation, and telecommunications ministers have spurred our cooperation across a broad range of issues.

At the first-ever Leaders' Meeting that President Clinton convened two years ago at Blake Island, APEC endorsed a shared vision for a new Pacific community. Last year in Bogor, the APEC leaders pledged to achieve free and open trade and investment in the region by 2020. Our challenge is to transform their vision into action when we meet in Osaka this November.

In our view, there are three key elements for an action agenda at Osaka :

The first and most important priority is to produce a specific blueprint for achieving the Bogor vision of free and open trade and investment. Such a blueprint would set forth shared principles, specific goals for liberalization, and a process for achieving them. We look forward to working constructively with this year's chairman, Japan, and with other APEC members to meet this goal.

As we look ahead to the Manila meetings in 1996, the United States is ready to work closely with the Philippines and the other ASEAN nations, along with Japan and our APEC partners, to sustain the momentum we hope to achieve in Osaka.

The second and complementary element for action, is for APEC member economies to commit to take very specific liberalizing steps of their own. Such steps might be to widen market access in a particular sector, to improve rules for foreign investors, or to accelerate implementation of a particular Uruguay Round provision. Cumulatively, these steps can be an initial "downpayment" for achieving the wider Bogor commitment -- a "downpayment" that will demonstrate a willingness to act and generate momentum for further steps.

The third key element is to take immediate measures to lower transaction costs for business and to build APEC's credibility in the business community. Simplifying technical standards and harmonizing customs procedures would be appropriate areas to make early progress. In the final analysis, the real test of APEC's success will be whether or not its work has practical relevance -- whether it removes barriers to trade, fosters competitive markets, and supports growth. We also hope that APEC leaders at Osaka will endorse the establishment of a new. permanent business sector advisory body that will help APEC focus its goals.

From the launching of the Uruguay Round to its conclusion and approval, the United States and ASEAN have been catalysts for action in the global economic arena. Now we must work together to ensure that the new World Trade Organization upholds rules and disciplines essential to the open global trading system.

By stimulating open trade and investment in the region, groupings such as APEC and AFTA complement our liberalization efforts around the globe. And by finding and advancing common interests, they contribute to the Pacific Community that is taking shape -- nowhere more so than in Southeast Asia.

Tomorrow, I will leave Brunei for Malaysia, an increasingly valuable economic and security partner of the United States. With that visit, and my subsequent trip to Vietnam, I will have traveled to every ASEAN partner country. In each of my trips, I have been impressed not only by your individual achievements, but by your collective resolve. And as ASEAN takes on larger responsibilities, it is the objective of the United States to reinforce our partnership for the benefit of our peoples, the region, and the world.

We have a full agenda before us today. I appreciate this opportunity to advance our common interests and aspirations.