RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – President Barack Obama and leaders of Southeast Asian nations are wrapping up a two-day summit that was conceived to show the U.S. is serious about keeping a high profile in a region where a rising China has rattled American allies.
Obama and the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will spend Tuesday discussing regional security issues.
They include counterterrorism and China’s bold territorial claims to disputed waters of the South China Sea, moves that have sounded international alarms and heightened tensions with some association members.
The U.S. maintains these disputes should be resolved peacefully based on international law.
Obama emphasized that stance Monday in welcoming leaders of ASEAN’s 10-nation bloc: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.