Tag Archives: ASEAN

India has self-isolated from the core of Asia, but Bangladesh cannot remain shivering in the cold outside, says one analyst.

The East Asian region faces a range of crucial political and security challenges. But zero-sum security relationships can be nested within positive-sum economic relationships in the region.

As China grows increasingly able to weaponize its financial clout for security purposes, failure on the part of the US to craft a comprehensive economic response undermines the autonomy of Southeast Asian countries and diminishes US influence.

While it is true that US engagement in Asia was never going to be secured or defined by the TPP but by broader US economic and political interests, those longstanding US interests in Asia are now also being tested by President Trump.

Myanmar has long valued ASEAN for the protection it provides not only from the wider international community but also its fellow members. But the unwillingness of Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya issue has pushed ASEAN members towards new forms of protest. This failure is already a tragedy, but for ASEAN it might become a disaster.

Governments in Asia and elsewhere would do well to focus actively on ways to mitigate the uncertain and potentially dangerous results of erratic or irresponsible US international behavior as early as possible, advises one analyst.

ASEAN needs to balance the United States and China. The United States has come late in acknowledging the geo-strategic significance of the organization. Southeast Asian leaders have already had 18 summits with China and 17 with Japan.

If China does experience a hard landing, it will take years to correct the underlying structural causes and restore China’s economic reputation.

ASEAN economic cooperation has a good deal to teach Europe in terms of focusing on ‘best practices’ rather than just national treatment and emphasising ‘open regionalism’ rather than just ‘intra-regionalism’. It would be a grave mistake for ASEAN to follow the European example in the monetary realm before its time.

Indonesia has only recently graduated to middle-income status. And while moderately strong economic growth means that is not in any sense ‘trapped’, it will have to overcome the problems holding back its growth as it moves up through the middle-income ranks.