Over the years, China worked to erase its image as a threat. The popular catchphrase ‘China’s peaceful rise’ is frequently heard as Beijing does business with its Southeast Asian neighbours. But the territorial disputes in the South China Sea have effectively spoiled this peace-loving image. The US’s reengagement with the region, through EAS, could be employed to counterbalance China’s military might. In other words, the US is needed and is urged to resume its Cold War role as a security guarantor for countries in Southeast Asia.

And what does China really think about the US’s admission into the EAS? Madam Xue Hanqin, China’s Ambassador to ASEAN, once provocatively asked, ‘Why do many Southeast Asians talk about the US’s reengagement with ASEAN when in fact the US has never actually left the region?’ Despite her sarcasm, China has at times signalled that it also wanted the United States ‘to be around’ in the region, particularly to ensure that Japan remains ‘demilitarised’. Bitter history and mutual distrust remain forceful elements in Northeast Asian international politics.

ASEAN has until recently been scarily aware of emerging concepts of regional architectures and feared its relevance could be diminished. Japan’s idea of East Asia Community (EAC) and Australia’s Asia-Pacific Community (APC) posed a serious threat to the very existence of ASEAN. Would ASEAN lose its competitiveness in a world replete with new regional organisations?

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s initiative of the APC threatened to lessen ASEAN influence.. In retaliation, the group was willing to go to the extra mile to question the APC concept, including employing regional media to rebuke Rudd’s idea of disintegrating the region, rather than integrating it.

Hence, the invitation extended to the United States to attend the EAS can be perceived as a part of ASEAN’s plot to retain its centric role in Southeast Asia and beyond. ASEAN recognises the Obama administration has shifted its policy toward Southeast Asia. ‘ASEAN is the most successful regional forum in Southeast Asia and it provides a legitimate channel for the United States to play its role’, said one ASEAN diplomat.

Not all members of the EAS are ecstatic about the admission of the United States. Myanmar for one is not too keen about having the United States around in the region. True, Washington has re-modified its position vis-à-vis Naypyidaw. But US sanctions have not been dismantled. The US government has been critical of the upcoming election in Myanmar which it considered a charade. Some ASEAN members are trying to downplay Myanmar’s discontentment of the US’s involvement in EAS, offering a more upbeat outlook, claiming the EAS could be used as an extra avenue for Washington and Naypyidaw to ‘get to know’ each other better.

Overall, the US membership of the EAS serves to fulfil ASEAN’s fundamental objectives, both to engage with outside powers and to strengthen its position as the core organisation in Southeast Asia. For Washington, its involvement in the EAS will not be merely symbolic, but may assist in transforming ASEAN from a known talk-shop, as often described by its critics, to a substance-based forum.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a Fellow and a Lead Researcher for Political and Strategic Affairs at the ASEAN Studies Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.