ASEAN’s Positioning in a multipolar Indo-Pacific
Joefe B. SANTARITA, Asian Center, University of the Philippines
In Indo-Pacific and regional context, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finds itself in a strategic vantage point relative to the United States, China, and other middle powers due to its nonthreatening posture and its capacity to perambulate through the “hierarchical” nature of global affairs. As a follow up to the Singapore based think tank’s commentary, this (...)

The Indo-Pacific : An Opportunity for Vietnam
Claire Thị Liên TRẦN, Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC), Bangkok
This paper shows how the Indo-Pacific strategy has become a major issue of the Vietnamese foreign policy. More than ever, Vietnam seeks multilateralism to manage its necessary political and economic partnership with the neighbouring China and its military pressure in the South China Sea. This paper highlights the opportunities for Vietnam’s economic, (...)

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Session 3 / The Indo-Pacific from Southeast Asian Perspectives : Centrality and Multilateralism in Uncertain Times
Chair : Dr Stéphane DOVERT, Founder of IRASEC
Chair : Prof. Suthiphand CHIRATHIVAT, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok)
The Indo-Pacific considered as a maritime “super-region” acknowledge the fact that the Indian Ocean has replaced the Atlantic as the globe’s busiest and most strategically significant trade corridor, whose geographical center in Southeast Asia. (...)

Thai policy face to US/China competition and possible confrontation
Panitan WATTANAYAGORN, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
This presentation argues that, on the one hand “ASEAN Centrality” has been an important element in Thailand’s national security strategy and foreign policy. The concept has not only been highlighted in the current official documents, but also implemented by the Thai governments in practice for the past decades. Recent research also (...)

ASEAN’s perspectives in Asia-Africa Growth Corridor Partnership
TRAN Thi Anh-Dao, University of Rouen (France) & Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC, Thailand)
Since the 2008 global crisis, the weight of South-South exports has exceeded that of South-North exports : in 2018, 57.6% of total exports from developing countries (here referred to as "the South") were destined for other developing economies. Evidence does seem to show a new geography of international (...)

How Can ASEAN Navigate Through Geopolitical Rivalries
Chheang VANNARITH, Asian Vision Institute and Invest in Cambodia
The evolving US-China power rivalry causes significant threats to regional peace and stability and put constraints on the foreign policy options for the small states. Maintain agency is the matter of survival for small states. ASEAN is widely perceived as the shield to protect the interests of small states and middle powers in Southeast Asia. By exercising collective (...)

Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific : some general observations
Shafiah F. MUHIBAT, Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific : some general observations
Great power politics has been a persistent feature of history and there are differences with regard to how countries view the regional order, including how Southeast Asian countries view “Indo-Pacific.” There are various interpretations on the meaning and and what the concept entails have been put forth by various countries/regions. There is the (...)

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Session 3 / The Indo-Pacific from Southeast Asian Perspectives : Centrality and Multilateralism in Uncertain Times
Chair : Prof. Suthiphand CHIRATHIVAT, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok)
The Indo-Pacific considered as a maritime “super-region” acknowledge the fact that the Indian Ocean has replaced the Atlantic as the globe’s busiest and most strategically significant trade corridor, whose geographical center in Southeast Asia. The “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific” in 2019 (...)

Japan’s Approach to Free and Open Indo-Pacific
Maiko ICHIHARA, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, and visiting scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
This presentation looks at Japan’s approach to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, and analyzes that Japan promotes liberal values with an incrementalist and pluralistic approach. Japan is uniquely positioned to operate in the diplomatic space between the value-laden approach of Western democracies and (...)

Europe Rediscovers the Indo-Pacific… Xi Jinping and Joe Biden
David CAMROUX, SciencesPo, Honorary Research Fellow, Center for International Studies (CERI), Paris
It was the German General K Haushofer, in his Geopolitik des Pazifischen Ozeans (1924) who created the denomination ‘Indo-Pacific’. A century later, in October 2020, the German Foreign Ministry framed its Asia policy guidelines as directed towards an Indo-Pacific region. As is often the case, it was its French counterpart which had (...)