Category: ASEAN
South China Sea, Infrastructure Top Agenda in China-Malayasia PM Talks
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim met with his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on Sunday on the sides of the 20th China-ASEAN Expo in the southern Chinese city of Nanning. The two PMs addressed the politically sensitive issue of competing territorial claims ...
ASEAN Knocks On The West’s Doors While Keeping China Close Amid Territorial Flare-Ups
This week’s summit in Jakarta saw ASEAN countries again knocking on the West’s door to ask for far more concrete support for their future growth. At the same time, the bloc seemed united in refraining from ruffling China’s feathers too much on the subject of the South ...
ASEAN Talks with Major Powers Navigate Numerous Controversies
China’s Premier Li Qiang warned against a ‘new cold war’ as the ASEAN summit moved on to a series of talks between the bloc and its partners. Calling for ways to "appropriately handle differences and disputes," Li said: "At present, it is ...
Premier Li Qiang Tries to Reassure China’s Southeast Asian Neighbors in ASEAN Address
Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang sought to soothe tensions with its neighbors in Southeast Asia during his keynote address on Wednesday at the ASEAN leaders summit in Jakarta. Li did not specifically reference the recent confrontations with the Philippines in the ...
Q&A: ASEAN Is Showing Teeth To Myanmar
On the first day of the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, the group leaders released a review on the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus (5PC), which was put out in 2021 to help resolve the crisis in Myanmar. The document ...
ASEAN Under Pressure at Start of Leaders’ Summit
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ summit kicks off in Jakarta on Tuesday as it fights for its relevance and unity amid mounting geopolitical tensions. Increasing jockeying between China and the United States in the South China Sea has piled pressure ...
ASEAN’s Hyper-Focus On Economic Growth Won’t Make Geopolitical Tensions Go Away
Indonesia’s ASEAN Chairmanship this year leans heavily towards spurring economic growth, believing that the focus on the more “neutral” subject would unite the group. In these economic efforts, ASEAN has been consistent in its messaging about working with all partners, because ...
TRANSLATION: Risks and Benefits if Indonesia Aligns With BRICS
The following is a summary translation of an article published in Bahasa on the Indonesian news website Tirto.id, written by reporter Andrian Pratama Taher, that combines several Indonesian analysts’ perspectives on the potential benefits and risks of Indonesia joining BRICS. ...
The New “BRICS6” May Complicate Indonesia’s Agenda in ASEAN
BRICS on Thursday officially invited six countries to join the group — Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. After all the speculations made in local media about Indonesia’s possibility to join, the country was missing from the invite list. And that is ...
Pivot to Asia: Why the Near Abroad is Now China’s Top Priority
For much of the past 20 years, China sought to radically expand its presence beyond its traditional spheres of influence to new regions in Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East. China lent billions to countries in these regions and devoted ...
South China Sea Ruling Anniversary Adds Pressure to ASEAN Gatherings
Protests in Manila this week marked the seventh anniversary of a Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal’s finding in favor of a Philippine claim over a stretch of the South China Sea also claimed by China. This comes as a week of ...
China Looms Large As ASEAN Foreign Ministers and Key Outside Powers Gather in Jakarta
Foreign ministers from the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are gathering in Jakarta with their counterparts from China, the U.S., Russia and beyond, for an intense week of ministerial meetings that will focus on some of the most contentious disputes in the world. ...