White House previews upcoming summit at Sunnylands with ASEAN
President Barrack Obama returns to the Coachella Valley Friday. Military planes that carry transportation equipment and other items for White House staff and cabinet members arrived at Palm Springs International Tuesday. You can expect road closures, international media and protesters during the president’s visit.
The president is hosting a summit with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage Feb. 15-16.
Come Monday afternoon, the president will greet each of the ASEAN leaders, according to the White House. This will be a unique gathering because it’s the first summit with ASEAN hosted by the U.S. It’s aimed at strengthening their new partnership, forged last November during a presidential trip to Malaysia.
In a press call Tuesday, the White House said once the 10 leaders join the president at Sunnylands they’ll get to work discussing the economy and entrepreneurship, trade and investment, climate change, and continue Tuesday with counter terrorism and security issues.
ASEAN represents America’s fourth largest trading partner and our exports support hundreds of thousands of jobs.
“This summit is meant to send a signal going forward. The U.S. values ASEAN, we’re going to be engaged in Southeast Asia,” said Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, National Security Council. “We’re going to be engaged with the nations of Asia-Pacific to set clear the rules of the road of the various issues of common interests we share with them.”
President Obama will also be joined by Sec. John Kerry and Sec. Penny Pritzker, along with other trade and business leaders during the summit.
Stay with CBS Local 2 & News Channel 3 for full coverage on the president’s visit to the Coachella Valley.
