PHNOM PENH: On the sidelines of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related meetings in Phnom Penh, US President Joe Biden met with members of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) on Sunday, 13 November 2022.

President Biden has demonstrated the United States' commitment to Cambodian youth, the younger generation of Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region.

"We really care about our relationship with ASEAN and our connections with the people and that is why I’m here," he said.

Cambodian civil war leaders and entrepreneurs discussed their work to promote human rights, sustainable development, and education, in order to combat human trafficking and environmental degradation in Cambodia.

One YSEALI member expressed his feelings and said, "My experience at YSEALI has changed my life. As a young woman from a province in Cambodia, I felt for the first time that they believed in me.”

At the US-ASEAN Special Summit in May 2022, the US State Department confirmed that the United States will double the size of the YSEALI program in three years, benefiting 900 new leaders to have good career opportunities and YSEALI research every year. Youth in Cambodia and across Southeast Asia will also attend the YSEALI Summit from 6-8 December 2022 in Phnom Penh.

The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) was established in 2013 to strengthen partnerships with new leaders across Southeast Asia, enhance their skills as good contributors to engage citizens in economic, and non-governmental affairs in the region, and encourage them to work internationally to address regional issues.

The YSEALI program includes the 10 ASEAN member states of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam, as well as Timor-Leste, which ASEAN leaders have just agreed to accept as the 11th member state of the association.