Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Raffles Hotel

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Good morning, everyone.  One of the great benefits and great pleasures of taking part in the ASEAN meetings is the opportunity it also affords to get together and compare notes with our closest partners, starting with my longtime friend, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar.  So this is an opportunity for us to compare notes as we head into these very important ASEAN meetings.  We’re both strong proponents of ASEAN centrality.  We have a shared vision together for a free and open Indo-Pacific that we work on in so many different ways every single day.  And of course, we have some immediate challenges that we’re both concerned with, to include the situation in Sri Lanka, Burma, and a number of other – number of other hot spots. 

So I very much look forward to once again being able to go through a number of these issues with my friend, and then we’ll both head over to our meetings.  Jai, it’s good to see you again.

EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER JAISHANKAR:  Thank you.  And let me (inaudible) your sentiment and (inaudible).  And it’s actually been a very busy year.  We had a very good Quad, and since then (inaudible).

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thank you.  Thanks, everyone.