ASEAN, A TENACITY WITH CONVERSATION, ON A WELL-TRAVELED COURSE

 

  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) convened its 56th Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM), post-ministerial conferences, and other associated regional events in Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

GSPREP ON THE ISSUE

 

Southeast Asian Association of Nations (ASEAN):

  • It is a regional organisation that was created in response to the escalating hostilities between the post-colonial states of the Asia-Pacific.

“One Vision, One Identity, One Community” is the ASEAN motto.

  • ASEAN Day is observed on August 8.
  • Indonesia’s Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat.

Recent developments involving India and ASEAN:

New Delhi served as the host city for the 24th ASEAN-India Senior Officials Meeting (SOM).

  • The 30th anniversary of India and ASEAN’s dialogue relations was marked.
  • The India-ASEAN Digital Work Plan 2022 was finalised by the two countries during the 2nd ASEAN Digital Ministers’ (ADGMIN) Meeting with India.

 

What are the tenets that ASEAN was founded on?

  • The core values of ASEAN as outlined in the 1976 Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC)
  • Mutual respect for each other’s national identities, geographical integrity, and other basic human rights.
  • The freedom from outside influence, subversion, or compulsion that each State has to govern its own national existence.
  • Refraining from interfering in one another’s private matters.
  • Peaceful resolution of disagreements or conflicts.
  • Giving up using force or threatening to use it.
  • They effectively work together.

 

Vision:

  • The joint statement of the FMM demonstrates ASEAN’s valiant efforts to navigate through seismic upheavals in the current decade.
  • Indonesia, the organization’s current head, has dubbed ASEAN “the Epicentrum of Growth.”
  • The vision is well-defined and has three interconnected dimensions:

o Establishing a political community that guarantees peace, justice, democracy, and harmony in the region

o An economic community committed to developing a regional economy that is well-integrated and connected with the rest of the world’s economies

  • A sociocultural community to raise the standard of living for ASEAN nationals and promote regional sustainability.

The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the chair were two essential components necessary for ASEAN to handle regional and global dynamics:

  • It should uphold the ASEAN Charter to keep its legitimacy.
  • It ought to maintain control while negotiating local dynamics.

 

Challenges:

  • ASEAN’s internal conflicts over problems like Myanmar keep coming to light in the media.
  • The tense relationship between the U.S. and China jeopardises its desire to dominate the area and set its agenda.
  • Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are at least three of the ASEAN nations with whom China maintains tight political and economic ties, making them practically dependent on China.

The Philippines’ claims in the South China Sea have grown increasingly adamant.

  • The key participants, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, all have favourable attitudes towards China.
  • The majority of ASEAN nations remain silent in response to China’s attempts to stall talks on an enforceable code of conduct for the South China Sea.
  • China and ASEAN have urged “an early conclusion of an effective and substantive” code of conduct.

o There is no mention of a deadline.

  • Despite recent attempts by the US to rekindle constructive conversations through high-level visits, ASEAN continues to watch helplessly as the bitter dispute between the US and Chinese administrations.
  • Even though the AOIP’s ASEAN allies have reiterated their support for it, implementation concerns still exist.
  • It appears weak when the alliance cannot agree on a very sensitive matter, such as the situation in Myanmar, which prompted ASEAN to exclude a member state (Myanmar) from all of its political-level deliberations.
  • In the lead-up to the FMM, Thailand conducted its own conversation with Myanmar’s military administration in defiance of ASEAN’s stated position.

 

The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), which ASEAN prefers to promote:

  • Its four designated regions are:

o maritime coexistence

o connectivity

o 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

o Economic coherence

 

Way ahead

  • ASEAN’s institutional architecture has evolved into a platform for inclusion.

o It attracts countries from near and far, as well as all of the major actors (the United States, China, India, Japan, and Russia) involved in forming the strategic competition in a large region spanning from east Africa to the South Pacific.

  • A regular reaffirmation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), which was forged in April 2021, could not mask the division.

o ASEAN centrality loses a lot of its legitimacy without cohesion.

  • S. Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, stressed the significance of an ASEAN that is “strong and unified” in the developing Indo-Pacific dynamic.

o He emphasised how the AOIP and India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative are interconnected.

o To expand on their comprehensive strategic cooperation, India and ASEAN cooperate in “newer fields including the financial, maritime, and cyber security domains.

  • Despite the fact that it seemed like ASEAN did not make any progress or break any new ground, its persistence in dialogue—both internally and externally—kept geopolitical tensions from escalating.

 

PRACTISE

Assess the role of the Indian Diaspora in South-East Asia in this perspective. (UPSC 2017) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS) The Indian Diaspora has a significant impact on the economies and societies of South-East Asian countries.