About Political & Security Cooperation

ASEAN and the U.S. will pursue a wide range of political and security activities under the Enhanced Partnership, including working jointly to strengthen the ARF process. These activities will cover such areas as deepening cooperation, enhancing communications, and supporting a peaceful and stable region.

Launch and Support of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Website

“The U.S. is an enthusiastic participant in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) -- the region's only broadly inclusive institution dedicated to security issues -- as it moves to stimulate cooperation on a wide range of nontraditional security threats, including maritime security, terrorism, nonproliferation, and cyber security”.

Christopher Hill, March 2006, Statement to the Asia Pacific Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee.

In July 2005 Ministers launched the ARF-Net, the official website for ARF, funded by the US Government. ARF-Net is designed to inform the public about the ARF and allow even closer consultation and information-sharing between ARF members with the aim of strengthening their cooperation to combat international terrorism. In May 2006 the ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility purchased additional hardware for use by the ASEAN Secretariat to ensure its full utilization of the website's secure communications capabilities. The website is hosted in SingTel datacenter in Singapore and uses the Secure Socket Layer certified encryption for the ARF-Net's Members Services chat line.