By Carl Thayer
The meeting marks the first time ASEAN ministers have met in the United States.
Last year at the Shangri-La Dialogue, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel extended a public invitation to all 10 of his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join him in Hawaii for informal discussions.
The inaugural U.S.-ASEAN Defense Forum was held from April 1-3 in Honolulu. This marked the first occasion that ASEAN Defense Ministers had met in the United States.
Prior to his arrival in Honolulu, Secretary Hagel told reporters on his plane, “I want those defense ministers after they leave Hawaii to feel even more clarity about U.S. commitment to the area, our coordination, our communication, the areas we can cooperate more and more and more [sic] and certainly humanitarian assistance, disaster relief is one (area).”
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