Author: Fenna Egberink, the Netherlands

Tensions over the overlapping claims in the South China Sea (SCS) have mounted in the past months, with hostilities accelerating since the beginning of June.

The row between China, Vietnam and the Philippines has urged current ASEAN chair, Indonesia, to step up. Read more…

Author: Fenna Egberink, the Netherlands

As critical accounts of Burma’s first elections in twenty years pour in, and as preliminary results confirm that the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has secured its hold on the country’s government, the grouping which continues to lend significant international legitimacy to the withdrawn Southeast Asian country remains silent. Although ASEAN has in the past years adopted an increasingly critical attitude towards the Burmese regime, it has now again chosen to follow the path of least resistance.

When Burma was up for membership of the regional grouping in the 1990s its neighbors hoped the inclusion of Burma in a regional framework would bring about internal political reform, as had happened with Vietnam a few years earlier. Read more…

Author: Fenna Egberink, Clingendael Institute

The United States’ recent Asian diplomacy has been most interesting. The US has drawn ASEAN countries into the guarded enmity between the US and China. Is this to Southeast Asia’s benefit?

Earlier this year China took a noticeably more proactive stance vis-à-vis its regional partners. After first asserting the South China Sea to be a ‘core interest’ during bilateral discussions with the US, a term generally reserved for its claims to Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang, China defied US diplomatic efforts by using its veto-powers in the UN Security Council to block actions against North Korea in the aftermath of the Cheonan incident.    Read more…