00:00U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the visit to ASEAN is part of an effort to renew U.S. focus on the Indo-Pacific.
00:08However, Trump's global tariff strategy has cast a shadow over the tree after he unveiled steep tariffs from August 1st on seven ASEAN members,
00:16including Malaysia, as well as on close northeast ASEAN, Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.
00:23This is where much of the story of the 21st century is going to be written.
00:27This is where two-thirds of economic growth is going to happen over the next 25 or 30 years.
00:31And many of the countries in Southeast Asia, not only are they some of the youngest countries in the world,
00:36but they're about to see an enormous expansion of their labor markets, their labor pool, number of workers.
00:41This is a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity, not just for these countries to revolutionize themselves from an economic standpoint,
00:49but further strengthen our relationship.
00:51We have over 6,000 American companies that have invested heavily in these economies over the last 20 or 30 years.
00:58We're not abandoning those relationships.
01:00On the contrary, we want to strengthen and build upon them.
01:02And there are a bunch of other issues, and certainly trade is part of it.
01:05But there are a lot of other issues that we work together on, and we continue to highly prioritize that.
01:11The story of the 21st century will be written in the Indo-Pacific.
01:15And the countries represented here today, along with others that have joined to be a part of this,
01:19represent some of not just important markets, some of the most important partners we have in the world.
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