So I think we've put together, working very closely with their government, the kind of trip that we think is necessary. They've been very supportive. We face no restrictions. And we are looking forward to that engagement.
Q: And is this going to come up at the ASEAN meeting? You guys pointed out that --
Senior US administration official: Yes.
Q: the leaders will both be there. Is this going to be talked about?
Senior US administration official: Oh, yes.
Senior US administration official: Yes.
Senior US administration official: We anticipate that the President will be able to address, again, the approach that he's taking here. Thein Sein will obviously be at the meeting, so he'll have an opportunity to reinforce exactly the messages we're talking about here.
Senior US administration official: And the irony is that this is their second meeting. He was prime minister in the previous government, and came to Singapore for the first U.S.-ASEAN meeting, and so they had a chance to meet at that time.
Q: Met like in a bilateral meeting, or just on the side?
Senior US administration official: They met in a bilateral meeting, in which --
Senior US administration official: No, a multilateral meeting.
Senior US administration official: Excuse me, a multilateral meeting. Sorry, I misspoke -- in a multilateral meeting as one of the 10 ASEAN members there.
I think what is different now is attributable to the steps that the Burmese government has taken. It is not that the President of the United States rolled out of bed and decided that it's time to tackle the Burma problem. It is that he is responding to measurable, concrete and significant steps that, in the view of Aung San Suu Kyi, warrant an engagement response and the kind of dialogue that Secretary Clinton will be able to engage in when she goes.
Q: Just one more point on the benchmarks -- I mean, have you told them things like, you must do X by Y date? Is it that specific, or is it just that they know more generally what it is that you need to see?
Senior US administration official: I think we have been clear about what our benchmarks are for what we would like to see, and that's how the dialogue has proceeded.
Senior US administration official: And by the way, they have also told us some things that they'd like to see as well.
Q: So the President will talk about this at ASEAN in -- not while we’re in there, but during the closed part, he'll mentioned it -- tell the group what he told us, that he's --
Senior US administration official: Cat is out of the bag.
Senior US administration official: Yes, and I think our sense is that this is something that will be broadly welcomed by the ASEAN countries. This morning, the President was able to -- the subject of Burma came up in his bilateral meeting with the President of the Philippines, for instance, who noted the positive steps Burma has taken, as well as in the meeting with Prime Minister Singh, who similarly noted those steps.
So we believe, again, this will be seen as a very positive signal. It's a signal that also, frankly, connects to what we've been discussing throughout this trip, which is our commitment to deepening our engagement here, and that engagement is welcome.
Q: Unrelatedly, is President Hu of China at the East Asia Summit here?
Senior US administration official: Premier Wen Jiabao is at the summit for China.
All right, sorry, we've got to run these guys off. But thanks, guys.