First Planning Call for the 2018 Business Mission to the ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM)

Dear Members,

Please join us for the first planning call for the 2018 Business Mission to the ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM).

During the first part of the call, Mr. Bradford A. Simmons, Asia Team Chief at the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Energy Resources, will provide a briefing on the U.S. Government's (USG) priorities for engaging the ASEAN Energy Ministers during the 36th AMEM in Singapore at the end of this month, including new initiatives such as Asia EDGE (Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy), a key component of the United States' Indo-Pacific Strategy. Mr. Simmons will also provide an update on current USG workstreams supporting the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (2016-2025). A short Q&A will follow Mr. Simmons' briefing. 

In his role as Asia Team Chief in the Energy Diplomacy pillar of the State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources, Mr. Simmons oversees a team of officers responsible for the bureau’s energy diplomacy efforts in East Asia and cross-regional and multilateral organizations such as APEC, ASEAN, and EAS. He is also the Department's leading expert on North Korea's energy sector and the oil and gas industry in the South China Sea.

The second part of the call will focus on the 2018 Business Mission to the ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM). We will discuss the proposed themes for the mission and the meeting targets. We will also go over the preliminary logistics of the mission. More details on the 2018 Business Mission to AMEM can be found here. All members who are considering participating in the mission are highly encouraged to join the call.

If you have any questions or input for the call, please contact Riley Smith at rsmith@usasean.org.