Whereas the United States and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ten members—Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—have worked together to advance our shared goals for 40 years, having established dialogue relations on September 10, 1977, with the issuing of the 1977 Joint Communique of the First ASEAN-U.S. Dialogue, and the United States acceding to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) at the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Session with the United States in Thailand on July 22, 2009; Whereas the United States was the first non-ASEAN country to appoint an ambassador to ASEAN on April 29, 2008, and the first dialogue partner to establish a permanent mission to ASEAN in 2010; Whereas the United States has supported efforts to strengthen the ASEAN Secretariat and expand its role in providing greater coordination among, and enhancing the effectiveness of, regional institutions; Whereas, working together, the Governments and people of the United States and ASEAN can help realize their common vision of a peaceful, prosperous, rules-based Asia-Pacific region that offers security, opportunity, and dignity to all of its citizens; Whereas ASEAN’s ten members, taken collectively, are the seventh-largest economy in the world, with an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.4 trillion, and represent the United States fourth-largest export market with total two-way trade in goods and services reaching $254 billion and accounting for more than 500,000 jobs in the United States; Whereas ASEAN’s ten members represent a diverse group of nations and dynamic economies with an expanding workforce, a growing middle class, and a diverse set of skills, cultures, and resources; Whereas ASEAN is home to critical global sea lanes located at the center of the world’s strongest economic growth area, with $5.3 trillion of global trade and more than half of total shipped tonnage transiting through ASEAN’s waters each year