The 34th ASEAN Summit was recently held in Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
What is ASEAN?
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization of countries in Southeast Asia.
Its objective is to promote intergovernmental cooperation and facilitate economic, political, security, military, educational, and socio-cultural integration.
ASEAN was established in 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand.
It came consequent to the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) by the founding members of ASEAN.
[These are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.]
It, now, also includes Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, and Laos, totalling to 10 members.
ASEAN’s six FTA partners are India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
What are the key outcomes of the summit?
Indo-Pacific Outlook - Ten leaders of the ASEAN member states have agreed to adopt the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific concept which was led by Indonesia.
There are 5 main points related to the Outlook - the background and reason behind, the key elements, objectives, principles, and areas of cooperation.
The outlook reflects the centrality and strength of ASEAN in respecting peace and dialogue culture and strengthening cooperation.
The outlook on the Indo-Pacific issue has come amidst the current global developments in the region. Click here to know more.
BIMSTEC - With the Indo-Pacific strategy, ASEAN has reserved a special place for India's BIMSTEC grouping as one to connect with.
This will be the first sign of acceptance in the region of India's renewed interest in BIMSTEC.
Notably, India has put in more diplomatic energy into BIMSTEC in recent years.
This comes as an effort to redefine India’s neighbourhood eastwards, for better connectivity and economic and strategic engagement.
Marine debris - The Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in the region was endorsed at the summit.
Efforts will be taken to significantly reduce and prevent the amount of marine debris, particularly from land-based activities.
Leaders also agreed to –
encourage integrated land-to-sea approaches to prevent and reduce marine debris
strengthen their respective legislation
intensify regional and international cooperation, including dialogs on policies and exchanges of information
In this regard, ASEAN will promote inter-sectoral coordination among ASEAN sectoral bodies.
This is to address the multidimensional negative and far-reaching impact of marine debris.
Leaders also agreed to promote an innovative solution to raise plastic costs.
Strengthening research capacities and applications of scientific knowledge to combat marine debris were also discussed.
What is China’s stake in the region?
China does not like the notion of Indo-Pacific, and prefer calling it Asia-Pacific.
ASEAN also gave a prominent space to the UN Law of the Sea and freedom of navigation.
Despite being a signatory to UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), China has built artificial islands in the Spratly Islands.
It is also on the way to militarising them.
These seas and islands are heavily contested between China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.
The US and its allies have been running freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in these seas for some time now, as a show of resistance to China’s domination.
