Whereas the United States and ASEAN 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-United States 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 between, 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 10 members, taken collectively, are the 7th largest economy in the world, with an annual gross domestic product of $2,400,000,000,000, and represent the United States fourth-largest export market with total two-way trade in goods and services reaching $254,000,000,000, allowing over 780,000 visitors to the United States in 2015, which contribute more than $5,000,000,000 to the United States economy, and accounting for more than 500,000 jobs in the United States; Whereas ASEAN’s 10 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, which of the estimated 20,000,000 Asian Americans in the United States, includes over 7,000,000 who identify with an ASEAN ethnicity, including 4,000,000 Filipinos and 1,900,000 Vietnamese