Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2012
Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna greets Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong in New Delhi, 13 February 2012. The foreign ministers were attending the two-day dialogue between India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (Photo: AAP)

Author: Rodolfo C. Severino, ISEAS

For the second time in ASEAN’s history, Cambodia has taken over the chairmanship of this ten-nation association.

It first chaired ASEAN in 2002–03, when the country had been a member for only three years. Yet the world and the region have changed considerably in the last 10 years. Read more…

International financial crises and the ASEAN economies
Public road infrastructure and building construction rise up at Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta on December 12, 2011. A week earlier The Asian Development Bank trimmed its 2012 growth forecast for emerging East Asian economies as the eurozone turmoil threatens to drag the global economy back into crisis. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Arief Ramayandi, ADB

The slow resolution of the European debt crisis has evolved into a liquidity problem which threatens the global financial system.

And these long-drawn-out efforts to address the sovereign debt problems have heightened uncertainties about resolving the crisis and induced speculative activities, threatening the survival of many European banks. Read more…

The South China Sea dispute: a legal solution needed
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during the ASEAN Plus Three Summit on 18 November, 2011. Jiabao warned against outside interference over the South China Sea dispute, in a challenge to Washington which wants to broach the issue at an Asian summit. (Photo: APP)

Author: John Hemmings, CSIS, Honolulu

At both the APEC and ASEAN summits, attempts were made to deal with the building impasse over the South China Sea issue.

Tensions over the region have grown steadily since 2009, after China, Vietnam and Malaysia submitted their respective claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China’s naval exercises in the region and apparent willingness to showcase its military capabilities in favour of its claims have also exacerbated these tensions. Read more…

India and Pakistan: what the most-favoured-nation decision means
Pakistani labourers offload tomato boxes from Indian trucks at the Pakistan-India Wagah border post. Cosmetics are smuggled by donkey through Afghanistan, chemicals and medicines track through Dubai. But only a fraction of legal trade travels directly from India to Pakistan. A baffling array of legal and practical barriers to exports between the suspicious neighbours has spurned unofficial trade worth up to US$10 billion, dwarfing official exchanges of US$2.7 billion. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Rajiv Kumar, FICCI

Pakistan’s decision to grant India most favoured nation (MFN) trading status opens up many potential benefits for both countries; existing trade arrangements will be improved and new opportunities will emerge as bilateral trade is normalised.

At present, a great deal of trade occurs via Dubai, a situation which is inefficient and fraught with illegalities effectively functioning as behind-the-border barriers to trade. Read more…

Burma: a test that ASEAN may be failing
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon shakes hands with Burmese President Thein Sein before their meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit. Ban said he planned to visit Burma 'as soon as possible', after talks with President Thein Sein where he urged progress on nascent reforms. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Julie Sheetz, Harvard University

Even before the announcement that ASEAN member states had awarded the 2014 rotating chairmanship to Burma, it was already a foregone conclusion.

Burma’s campaign to be reinstated as a regular member of ASEAN gained steam when Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, began hinting at approval before his visit to Naypyidaw, Burma’s capital, last month. Read more…

The US in the EAS: implications for US–ASEAN relations
US President Barack Obama applauds with Southeast Asian leaders, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L), Philippines President Benigno Aquino (2nd L) and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (R), during a group photo session for the leaders of the East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia, on 19 November, 2011. (Photo: AAP).

Author: Ralf Emmers, RSIS

The US recently participated in the East Asia Summit (EAS) for the first time — a decision that has wider implications for US–ASEAN relations.

The decision to join the EAS is part of a recalibration of US foreign policy vis-à-vis ASEAN-led multilateral institutions. This shift in policy reflects a broader attempt by the US to re-engage with Southeast Asia — after years of perceived indifference — and is equally related to China’s growing influence in the Asia Pacific region. Read more…

Europe in the Pacific century
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrive to speak to the press following talks at the State Department in Washington on 11 July 2011. From the speech Secretary Clinton gave in Honolulu earlier this month, unless Europe is involved in Asia it will not have a meaningful say in the future of politics. (Photo:AAP)

Author: Frans-Paul van der Putten, Clingendael

This century will be America’s Pacific century, wrote US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the November issue of Foreign Policy.

As she put it: ‘The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the centre of the action’. Read more…

The United States and the East Asia Summit: a new beginning?
US President Barack Obama (R) listens as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) speaks during their meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia summits in Bali, on November 19, 2011. Obama held unscheduled talks with Premier Wen after a week of sharp exchanges between the two nations.

Authors: David Capie, Victoria University; and Amitav Acharya, American University

This week President Obama will join seventeen other Asian leaders in Bali for the Sixth East Asia Summit (EAS).

With a tough economy at home and the decision of the Congressional ‘super-committee’ on the federal budget only days away, this is hardly a good time for a US president to be out of the country. Obama’s decision to participate in the EAS for the first time in Bali is therefore a powerful symbol of a shift in American policy towards Asia. It also says much about the evolving nature of regional cooperation. Read more…

EAS: calling for a new East Asian political architecture
Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (R) is received by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L) during the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan Summit in Nusa Dua in Indonesian resort island Bali on November 18, 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Jusuf Wanadi, CSIS, Jakarta

The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) will be held in Bali in November, marked by the participation of two new members, Russia and the US.

The EAS is a pan-Asian dialogue forum on broad strategic, political and economic issues with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia. Read more…

China’s marine economy
Various cargo ships and tugboats make their way down the mighty Yangtze River towards the sea, from Nanjing, capital of eastern China's Jiangsu province, 30 October 2005. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Liu Shuguang, Ocean University of China

China’s central government approved Guangdong Province’s plan to build a national-level marine economic-development zone on 20 July, establishing a clear trend in this direction.

Guangdong’s is the third plan approved so far this year, following those for Shandong and Zhejiang. Read more…

ASEAN’s newer members and the Asian noodle bowl
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses journalists after the tripartite meeting with Thailand and Indonesia during the ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia 08 May 2011.

Author: Jayant Menon, ADB

When discussing Laos’ upcoming ASEAN membership with a senior government official in 1995, he insisted the reason his country wanted to join the regional organisation was because Vietnam had just done so.

The response revealed two things. First, Laos, like its neighbouring ASEAN aspirants at the time — Cambodia and Myanmar — did not want to be left behind, and wanted out of the economic wilderness by joining ‘the club’. Second, there was very little appreciation of what membership would entail, let alone what it could evolve into. Read more…

The sixth East Asia Summit: keeping up the neighbourhood
Foreign ministers and government officials attend the US-ASEAN Regional Forum in Nusa Dua in Bali on 23 July 23 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta

The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) will take place on 19 November in Bali, with its newest members — the US and Russia — breathing new life into the forum.

While the Summit’s original objective of serving as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues remains important, the US and Russia’s inclusion has now opened an opportunity for greater geopolitical security dialogue. Read more…