By Ernest Z. Bower, Senior Adviser and Director of the Southeast Asia Program, CSIS

The road into Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Photo by Ron Knox, used under a Creative Commons license.

Bandar Seri Begawan is not a thriving megalopolis, but it is not a hard place to access. One short flight from Singapore’s world-class Changi Airport puts you in the modern and clean Brunei International Airport just seven minutes from downtown—ten if there is traffic. The diminutive and calm capital of ASEAN’s smallest member, Brunei Darussalam, will host the ASEAN Energy Ministers this September.

Current plans are for 20 ministers to join the meeting to discuss the future of the region’s energy use, energy security, regionalizing electric power grids and pipelines, and the future for renewable power. ASEAN’s 10 ministers count for half of that number—then add China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and others. Grappling with the implications of Japan’s crisis will be high on the agenda. These are important issues for the region and important issues for the United States.

The problem is that the U.S. secretary of energy, the brilliant Dr. Steven Chu, does not plan to be in Bandar Seri Begawan in September. By no means does this cast any aspersions on Dr. Chu’s leadership or vision. None of his predecessors have attended the ASEAN Energy Ministers meetings either. In fact, the U.S. secretaries of agriculture, transportation, health, and the treasury have not attended the ASEAN ministerial with their counterparts.

President Obama now meets annually with the ASEAN leaders in the U.S.-ASEAN Leaders Meeting. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has chalked up perfect attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) during her tenure; and the laser-focused Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was the first defense minister to sign up for the inaugural ASEAN Defense Minister Plus Eight (ADMM+) meeting in Hanoi last year. Their leadership is appreciated and has sent timely and strong messages to the 10-country grouping of more than 650 million people.

The question is whether it is time for the United States, with conscious design to promote its interests in maintaining the security and safety of its citizens and in creating new jobs and economically and strategically advancing its influence, to ask its cabinet to forward deploy in Asia.

Doing so would answer two important questions our allies and partners in Asia have at the top of their minds: (1) will the United States sustain its engagement in Asia; and (2) how can the United States institutionalize its engagement in Asia?

ASEAN is the core of new regional security and trade architecture. ASEAN is the place where the great powers of the twenty-first century meet to cooperate, collaborate, and compete. It is the fulcrum of twenty-first-century power—economic and strategic.

Critics will rightly say that ASEAN ministerial processes can be painfully bureaucratic and are not renowned for delivering results. However, other countries have now decided to fully engage these structures, namely China, Japan, and Korea, and to a greater and greater extent India, Australia, and New Zealand. These meetings are where the new rules of the Asia Pacific will be drawn up—new definitions of standards, regional connectivity and infrastructure, norms, and, importantly, relationships. China is acting strategically by engaging these ASEAN structures. To date, its engagement has been focused on promoting its own interests, but that could change.

U.S. engagement would smartly focus on capacity building and encouraging other ASEAN partners to co-invest in that effort to build a strong foundation—in ASEAN—for regional structures that will promote peace and prosperity throughout this century. In the process, U.S. interests such as investment, exports, and regional security could be advanced in a practical manner.

Bandar Seri Begawan is a long trip, and Secretary of Energy Chu’s time is a precious commodity. However, investing strategically in deepening and institutionalizing U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia is timely and important. A plan for stepping up this engagement would be a very strong ante for President Obama when he sits down at the table for his first East Asia Summit and his third U.S.-ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Indonesia this fall.