Courtesy: Kuwait Times
The 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta reflected the grouping’s resilience amidst transformative geopolitical changes in the Indo-Pacific. Striving for unity and centrality, ASEAN tackled challenges posed by COVID-19, economic slowdown, climate change, and U.S.-China competition. However, internal differences on sensitive issues like Myanmar have tested its credibility.
Courtesy: @ASEAN
ASEAN centrality is not what it used to be. Covid, post-pandemic economic recovery, the Ukraine crisis and the challenge of China all tested ASEAN capabilities to manage them. It is now up to ASEAN to work out its unity and centrality with a greater sense of responsibility.
Courtesy: asean.org
Vietnam had a busy 2020, starting with its chairmanship of ASEAN and ending with the signing of RCEP, and a free trade agreement with the EU. All were completed successfully despite the pandemic, which it also handled well. It has revealed Vietnam’s dexterity and confidence, good management and societal control and raised the country’s global profile.
Courtesy: Nikkei Asia
Six months after Malaysia’s parliamentary elections, its domestic affairs are still untidy. The government is combating corruption, but not bringing in constitutional reform. A successor’s name is not emerging clearly either. But Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s foreign relations priorities – principally, Japan and China – are in order
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In two years, the Modi government’s Act East Policy has gone well beyond the focus on economic ties of its predecessor, the Look East Policy. It has made progress on many wider fronts, including connectivity and defence collaboration. India must now build on this success and further consolidate relations and trade links with ASEAN and beyond
Courtesy: Jennifer Le/Flickr
Lee Kuan Yew transformed a “pestilential and immoral cesspool” into a glittering global city with the world’s highest per capita income and the highest percentage of home ownership. Lee also had grand vision for the role that India could play in Asia.
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By using information and communication technology innovatively, Singapore has overcome the challenges of limited size and resources. There are many lessons here for India which is collaborating with Singapore on the Smart Cities project – especially when it comes to affordable housing and transport planning.
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/Gunkarta
As India and the world welcome the recent democratization of Myanmar, this presents India an opportunity to increase its access to South East Asian countries as well, especially with members of ASEAN which still have catching up to do – particularly Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Amidst myriad country groupings that already exist – BRICS, IBSA, APEC, SCO and many others – a new initiative in the Pacific is looking to integrate more powerful countries to form a multilateral free trade agreement – the Trans Pacific Partnership. How important is this towards the reshaping of trade and power?
Courtesy: CWG Delhi
The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was a moment to celebrate the economic progress of the world's largest democracy, and showcase India's tradition and diversity in all its finery