U.S. Mission to ASEAN (USASEAN)

🇺🇸 is a committed ASEAN partner, and we support ASEAN centrality. We look forward to the growth in our economic relationships with ASEAN member states this year as we work together to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific. We will continue working to make the East Asia Summit a platform for promoting peace and prosperity, in this region and beyond.

Criminal scam groups in Southeast Asia cheated Americans out of $10 billion in 2024. 🇺🇸 and ASEAN are fighting back. Working together across borders and across sectors, we are supporting ASEAN to share threat information and partnering with 🇺🇸 firms to protect the safety of our combined one billion people.

Is there anything you can do to protect yourself against online scammers?

Find out what cybersecurity expert and cybercrime prevention trainer Scott Augenbaum taught YSEALI CyberSafe ASEAN participants as they prepared their action plans to fight online scams.

His simple, time-tested precautions really do work, and the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative CyberSafe teams are putting them into action throughout Southeast Asia.

Read the full article at: linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-young-southeast-asian-professionals-beat-online-v4vnc

🌏✨ The special YSEALI Academic Fellows Program summit showed 🇱🇦 and 🇲🇲 participants how they can work with technology providers, policymakers, and their communities to advocate for common-sense AI regulations. U.S. Mission to ASEAN (USASEAN) Chargé d’Affaires Joy Sakurai urged them to work together at every level to advance our shared goal for a free and open Indo-Pacific. 🤝

Chargé d’Affaires Joy Sakurai, a 🇺🇸 National War College delegation, and ASEAN Political-Security Community Deputy Secretary-General Dato’ Astanah Abul Aziz explored opportunities to further strengthen U.S.-ASEAN cooperation. As we work together across the full range of security and economic issues, we advance our shared goal for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Reward Offer of Up to $10 Million for Information Leading to Financial Disruption of Tai Chang Scam Centers in Burma

🔗Read Press Statement for more info:
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/reward-offer-of-up-to-10-million-for-information-leading-to-financial-disruption-of-tai-chang-scam-centers-in-burma/

Reward Offer of Up to $4 Million for Information Leading to Arrest of Chinese Scam Center Money Launderer

🔗Read Press Statement for more info:
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/reward-offer-of-up-to-4-million-for-information-leading-to-arrest-of-chinese-scam-center-money-launderer/

These sanctions protect Americans and their hard-earned savings from the pervasive threat of online scam operations by disrupting the ability of criminal networks to perpetuate industrial-scale fraud using forced labor and physical and sexual abuse.

🔗Read Press Statement for more info: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/imposing-sanctions-on-online-scam-centers-in-southeast-asia-2/

🌐 Southeast Asia’s combined 680 million people generate one fifth of global GDP, and all signs indicate they will continue to be one of the world’s most dynamic, fastest-growing regions for the foreseeable future.

James Carouso breaks down why the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, matters to 🇺🇸 and why it should matter to all of us.

🔗 Read the full article: ow.ly/GxfR50YI3G1

U.S. Mission to ASEAN Chargé d’Affaires Joy Sakurai and ASEAN leaders in Jakarta support 🇺🇸 U.S. Department of State Cultural Heritage Center’s program to stop cultural heritage property trafficking in Southeast Asia. Working together to protect the region’s rich cultural heritage not only ensures we can all appreciate these priceless objects; it also makes us safer by taking down criminal networks.

Press Statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

On behalf of the United States, I extend warm wishes to the Government and people of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) on the occasion of “Pi Mai Lao.” As families and communities in Laos and across the world gather to celebrate the New Year, we honor your rich cultural traditions and the spirit of renewal this holiday represents.

The United States values our growing partnership with Lao PDR and remains committed to working together to promote prosperity, health, and opportunity for all our peoples.

May the New Year bring peace, happiness, and good fortune to the people of Laos and to the Laotian American community in the United States.

🔗Link: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/lao-new-year-2026/