ASEAN’s Reclamation of Indo-Pacific

What is the issue?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)is intending to reclaim its position in Indo-Pacific region.

What is the current situation?

• Thegeopolitical contestation between China and the U.S. is escalatingin the Indo-Pacific region now.
• So, it has become imperative for the ASEAN to underscore its centrality in the emerging regional order.
• The ASEAN member states have finally managed to articulate a collective vision for the region in its non-binding document.
• It istitled as “The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific”.

What the document is about?

• It underlines the need for an inclusive and rules-based frameworkto generate momentum for building strategic trust and win-win cooperation in the region.
• It says that the rise of material powers (economic and military)requires avoiding the deepening of mistrust, miscalculation and patterns of behaviour based on a zero-sum game.

What is its significance?

• It could complement existing frameworks of cooperation at the regional and sub-regional levels.
• It could generate tangible and concrete deliverables for the benefit of the region’s peoples.
• Despite individual differences and bilateral engagementsASEAN states have with the U.S. and China, the regional grouping can now claim to have a common approach as far as the Indo-Pacific region is concerned.
• Though there were divisions among ASEAN member states in the run-up to the summit, they still managed to come up with this document.

What is the significance of the China Sea?

• South China Sea is an increasingly contested maritime space, claimed by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
• So, it is interesting that these ASEAN members have agreed to push for a quick conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the region.
• It has been pushed into articulating its formal response after other major regional players began laying their cards on the table.

Who are the regional players trying to influence?

• United States of America (USA) – U.S. Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy report which focusses on preserving a FOIP in the face of a more “assertive China”.
• Japan – Released its Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept in 2016.
• Australia - Released its Foreign Policy White Paper in 2017, detailing its Indo-Pacific vision centred around security, openness and prosperity.
• India –Indo-Pacific vision was shownat the Shangri-la Dialogue, 2018.
• India even setup an Indo-Pacific wing in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) earlier this year.

Why was ASEAN reluctant to engage before?

• ASEAN had the perceptionthat it may antagonise China if it engages with the Indo-Pacific discourse.
• But there was soon a realisation that such an approach might allow others to shape the regional architecture and marginalise the ASEAN.

What is the framework of the outlook?

• It doesn’t see the Indo-Pacific as one continuous territorial space.
• It emphasises development and connectivity, underlining the need for maritime cooperation, infrastructure connectivity and broader economic cooperation.
• The ASEAN says, it would seek to avoid making the region a platform for major power competition.
• Instead its frame of reference is economic cooperation and dialogue.
• Aim of ASEAN’s approach– PlacatingChina by not allowing itself to align with the U.S.’s vision for the region completely.

What is India’s stance?

• India has welcomed the ASEAN’s outlook as it sees “important elements of convergence” with its own approach towards the region.
• India is trying to carefully calibrate its relations with the U.S. and China in this region.
• On the sidelines of the recent G-20 Summit in Japan,India held discussions on the Indo-Pacific region with U.S. and Japan, with a focus on improving regional connectivity and infrastructure development.

Source: The Hindu

Quick Facts

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

• ASEAN is a group of 10 member countries that encourages political, economic, and social cooperation in the South East Asian region.
• Members – BruneiDarussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• 1 Observer – Papua New Guinea.
• Objectives – As per theASEAN Declaration,
  1. To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region.
  2. To promote regional peace and stability.

• Fundamental goals–Cooperative peace and shared prosperity.

Zero-sum game

• In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants.
• If the total gains of the participants are added up and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero.