After more than six months of negotiations, the US and Asean have finally agreed that their leaders will meet in Washington DC on May 12-13. This kind of tussle could have been avoided had there been better coordination from the US side.

Asean acts as a group with a coordinator to handle the whole process for the Asean-10 while the Americans have the White House, the State Department, and the National Security Council (NSC). Quite frequently, they were not in sync with one another.

www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2296734/asean-us-to-meet-amid-great-challenges