U.S. to host summit with ASEAN in February in California

U.S. President Barack Obama will hold talks with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in California on Feb. 15-16, the White House said Wednesday.

The summit, which will take place at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, is the first hosted by the U.S. with the ASEAN leaders. It "builds on the deeper partnership that the United States has forged with ASEAN since 2009 and will further advance the Administration's rebalance to Asia and the Pacific," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

The gathering will provide leaders with a forum to strengthen cooperation under the new U.S.-ASEAN strategic partnership on political, security, and economic issues, the spokesman added.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Endit