[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 682 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 682

  To provide for the treatment of the Association of Southeast Asian 
 Nations (ASEAN) as an international organization for purposes of the 
  International Organizations Immunities Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 7, 2023

 Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Risch, Ms. Duckworth, and Mr. Romney) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                     Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide for the treatment of the Association of Southeast Asian 
 Nations (ASEAN) as an international organization for purposes of the 
  International Organizations Immunities Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Providing Appropriate Recognition 
and Treatment Needed to Enhance Relations with ASEAN Act'' or the 
``PARTNER with ASEAN Act''.

SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY ON DEEPENING COOPERATION WITH ASEAN.

    It is the policy of the United States--
            (1) to reaffirm the United States-ASEAN Comprehensive 
        Strategic Partnership, established in 2022 following 45 years 
        of Dialogue Partnership;
            (2) to enhance United States-ASEAN cooperation in support 
        of an open, transparent, resilient, inclusive and rules-based 
        regional architecture in the Indo-Pacific;
            (3) to support regular, high-level United States official 
        engagement with ASEAN, including the participation in the 
        annual ASEAN Summit held each year;
            (4) to enhance cooperation with ASEAN member states as well 
        as with the institution of ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat, 
        including through the United States Mission to ASEAN, led by 
        the United States Ambassador to ASEAN; and
            (5) to welcome the decision in-principle by ASEAN to admit 
        Timor-Leste to be ASEAN's 11th member state and to encourage 
        United States support to Timor-Leste in its capacity as an 
        official ASEAN observer.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ASEAN DELEGATION 
              TO THE UNITED STATES.

    It is the sense of Congress that it is in the United States 
interest to encourage the establishment, at the earliest opportunity, 
of an ASEAN delegation to the United States, to enhance cooperation 
between ASEAN and the United States at all levels.

SEC. 4. EXTENSION OF DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITIES TO THE ASSOCIATION OF 
              SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS.

    The provisions of the International Organizations Immunities Act 
(22 U.S.C. 288 et seq.) may be extended to the Association of Southeast 
Asian Nations in the same manner, to the same extent, and subject to 
the same conditions as such provisions may be extended to a public 
international organization in which the United States participates 
pursuant to any treaty or under the authority of any Act of Congress 
authorizing such participation or making an appropriation for such 
participation.
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