 Good afternoon. I'm Ernie Bauer with the CSIS Southeast Asia Program, and I'm here today with the U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN. David Cardin, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. You've been in the job for five months now. Could you tell us a little bit about your role and what the U.S. mission to ASEAN has done since you've arrived in Jakarta? It's been actually very gratifying, the reception that I've gotten in these first five months. We've convened any number of conversations over the course of that time period with my new friends and colleagues, the ambassadors to ASEAN from each of the countries, as well as the dialogue partners that exist. Japan also has an ambassador, Takio Yamada, and we are in regular conversations on issues that are part of our portfolio, which as you well know is a very broad one. Yes. You must be planning for President Obama's trip to Indonesia in November. He'll be there for the EAS East Asia Summit and the Third ASEAN U.S. Leaders Summit. Could you tell us a little bit about preparations for those and what could we expect from that trip? One of the things we've been doing over the course of the early part of my tenure is negotiating a plan of action for the United States engagement with ASEAN going forward for the next five years. That plan of action is very detailed, quite granular, and it will provide the basis for a conversation in Bali in November. And items will be, I think, highlighted and initiatives pursued that come from the plan of action that has been negotiated. The plan of action has been something which has been thought through very deeply and in consultation with our ASEAN friends. So that will be the template for where we go from here. Trade seems to be a core part of engagement in Asia and certainly in our foreign policy in Asia. Would it ever be possible for the United States to have a free trade agreement with the 10 ASEAN countries? And if not, what are the key obstacles to pursuing that? If so, what are the prospects? Well, ever is a long time, I say to some of my friends, that causation has a twin and that's time. So I can't speak to that. It's also true, of course, that my colleagues at USTR are responsible for those trade issues. They speak for the administration on them. I can say that trade obviously is an important question. These are economies that are in different states of development. Some of them quite advanced, as you well know, like Singapore. Some of them not very advanced and more agrarian such as Laos. They are not in the same place. But part of ASEAN's plan is for them to evolve. And for the lower Mekong countries, for example, to be given opportunities to further develop their economies. So as I said, ever is a long time. But at this juncture, I think that's the place that the region is presently situated. You are indeed the first US ambassador to ASEAN resident in Jakarta. So in a sense, you're pioneering a bit. Could you tell us a little bit about the day and the life of David Carton as ambassador to ASEAN? And also, what do you think that might look like 10 years from now after things you've institutionalized some of this? Well, there's been a lot of curiosity about my arrival. In fact, I think curiosity understates that there's a great deal of interest. And so there are invitations of all types to speak and to write and to go to meetings and the like, as you might imagine. We've been trying to do a number of things in this time period. Building the mission is an important aspect of what we're trying to accomplish. And I'm happy to say that in the course of the last five months, we've doubled the size of the mission in times which are both resource constrained and where we have space issues. I've been spending a great deal of time on that question. We've also been trying to identify those issues that we can most immediately work on with our new ASEAN friends. And they are several in number. And as a consequence, we address those very regularly. So apart from waking up in the morning having breakfast and exercising, which I do every morning, I make it to the mission or make it to the secretariat or I make it to one of the ambassadorial offices. And we are in the conversations that are advancing the interests of the country going forward. And I think the interests of the region as well. And channeling ahead ten years, you think there will be more institutions around the U.S.-ASEAN relationship? One of the first things that I did when I arrived was ask any number of countries to send an ambassador. I think it's extremely important that we engage ASEAN across a much broader spectrum. I'm pleased to say I think that will be happening. And Secretary Clinton also requested by letter this July, I believe, that other countries send ambassadors to ASEAN. I expect early next year the first will begin to arrive. I'm hopeful that there'll be any number of them in the coming years. Of course, all of them have or many have double-headed ambassador. I'm talking about an ambassador to ASEAN alone. So that will be a change, I believe. I think it's also true that the capacity of ASEAN to actually carry forward the conversations that it has undertaken in EAS and in all of the ASEAN for will improve. And they will be made more robust as a consequence of the engagement with its dialogue partners. And it's also the case that our own mission will grow. It will have very many different additional components. As you may know, our portfolio includes things such as disaster relief and pandemic preparedness, climate change, trafficking in persons and trafficking in wildlife. Experts with regard to those issues I think will appear on the scene at various times and will collaborate with our friends to sort of move those agenda items forward. So I expect that the mission will grow in the coming years and I expect that the missions of other countries will also not only be established but will grow as ASEAN takes the stage to push the agenda forward, which they've defined for themselves. Well, David Cardin, I wish you the best of luck. And Jakarta, thank you for your leadership there. And thanks for coming to see us. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Jordy.