A Mirror OF International Democratic POLARISATION
ASEAN has taken measures to isolate itself from conflict between its speech lovers. Until 2022, companions had consider issue-specific East Asia Summit claims. However, negotiation of these statements ( one of which was proposed by Russia in 2022 on the seemingly innocuous topic of volunteerism ) became too contentious.
Although it is still possible for the East Asia Summit to publish at least one simultaneously negotiated speech in 2024, it reflects the polarization in international politics that the discourse partners are no longer able to make their preferred language on global issues.
Because Laos is a weaker Asian part, some will already be looking to Malaysia’s chairman in 2025.
With his help for Hamas and a bias toward China’s posts on Taiwan and the South China Sea, Prime Minister Anwar has drawn global controversies. But the ASEAN chair’s control is often limited, so Anwar’s personal views did not alter the path of the organisation.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has already been invited to the 2025 ASEAN summits, which could give Moscow the chance to achieve complete proper companion status, which Australia, China, the United States, and Japan now possess ( South Korea will receive extensive proper partner status confirmed later this year ).
So the ASEAN show will travel to Laos and then resume. Real progress on pressing issues will be severely lacking. However, ASEAN’s convening power is perhaps more crucial than ever as the world environment becomes more contested and the scope for international consensus narrows.
Susannah Patton is the Lowy Institute’s Director of the Southeast Asia Program. This commentary first appeared on the Lowy Institute’s blog, The Interpreter.