Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific: some general observations / Shafiah F. MUHIBAT

Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration: Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads

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 geographic understanding of the Indo Pacific, i.e. the geographic location that is formed by the Pacific and Indian Oceans. There is also the strategic meaning, which describes Indo-Pacific as an exclusive security/strategic cooperation among a number of states. And then there is an interpretation offered by Southeast Asian countries through the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
After several months of intense effort, the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP) was finally adopted at the ASEAN Summit on 23 June 2019. Aplauded as an important breakthrough, AOIP also disappoints many of those who had high expectations. AOIP does not provide responsive measures in the case of conflict escalation. Two years after its conception, the promotion of AOIP is no longer as grandeur as before. Identification upon the existing and the forthcoming hotspots are necessary before being able to bridge differences in the Indo-Pacific region.

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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 asserted the “ASEAN Centrality” and its willingness to weigh as a significant player in the Indo-Pacific changing landscape, at the heart of new regional dynamics. These last years, ASEAN has defended an alternative position of “dialogue and cooperation, and not rivalry with China” in the context of Trump’s trade disputes and conflicts between US and China. This session questions the Southeast Asia countries and ASEAN multilateral strategy, in the recent changing context with the new Biden administration’s commitment in the Indo-Pacific. And to what extent will ASEAN countries and institutions be able to defend a stable multipolar world order in the Indo-Pacific region without isolating China, and avoid, as during the Cold War, being the center theatre of conflicts ?

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“Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration : Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads” is an international conference organized by The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC-CNRS) with the ASEAN Studies Center (Chulalongkorn University) in Bangkok, and the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), RIS in New Delhi.
8-9 July 2021 - Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok