In a meeting between US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on August 04, Antony Blinken shared his views on taking part in the ASEAN meets. “Taking part in ASEAN meets is an opportunity for us to get together and compare notes with our closest partners, starting with my longtime friend, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar. It's an opportunity for us to compare notes as we head into ASEAN meetings, We're both strong proponents of ASEAN centrality. We have a shared vision together for a free and open Indo-Pacific that we work on in so many different ways every single day,” he said. “We have some immediate challenges that we're both concerned with, including the situation in Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), and other hotspots. So I look forward to once again being able to go through a number of these issues with my friend and then we'll head over to meetings,” he added. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar told Antony Blinken, “Always good to meet. There's a lot we need to talk about and it's actually been a very busy year, we had a very good Quad and since then I think a number of developments have happened all over the world.”