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ndonesia is urging ASEAN to strengthen its unity and take a central role in developing an Indo-Pacific cooperation framework that can contribute to an inclusive and peaceful international order amid resurging great-power rivalries.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo made this call to his counterparts who gathered in Singapore for the 32nd ASEAN Summit on Saturday.

During a retreat session in the morning, the 10 ASEAN leaders discussed various regional concerns, including conflicting claims in the South China Sea and the positive developments from Friday’s inter-Korean summit.

Jokowi brought Indonesia’s Indo-Pacific concept, which includes all countries with Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean coasts, to the table. He said the idea must be developed through an ASEAN-led mechanism that upholds the principles of inclusiveness and transparency. Geographically located where the two oceans meet, Southeast Asian nations must continue fulfilling a strategic role, particularly in developing an Indo-Pacific strategy that asserts ASEAN centrality, he said.

“The Indo-Pacific concept [developed by] ASEAN is of great importance to ensure that ASEAN stays relevant and is able to maintain its centrality, as well as to show ASEAN’s competence in keeping up with the changes in strategic issues,” Jokowi said.

For more than five decades, the regional bloc has contributed to peace, security, stability and prosperity, Jokowi said. “However, ASEAN must be able to advance and unite to maintain its success as it now faces great challenges in the region,” he added.

Government officials and think tanks from Southeast Asian countries have expressed concerns about the competing major powers in the Indo-Pacific region, such as the United States-Chinese rivalry, which could inadvertently affect the geopolitical and economic landscape.

Looming trade wars and protectionism have particularly become the concerns of ASEAN leaders, who reiterated their commitment to free and open markets in Southeast Asia, the world’s sixth-largest economy.

“Our challenge [to realize Indo-Pacific cooperation] is how to convert the rivalries into cooperation,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said after the summit while on board the presidential aircraft. “If the rivalry, trade wars and protectionism prevails, [ASEAN] will be at risk of losing our achievement of 50 years.”

The US, as well as several major regional powers such as Japan, Australia and India, have had ambitions to develop such a regional framework for several years and have come up with their own ideas.

Retno said her office had repeatedly engaged the country’s partners, including the US and Japan, in various discussions over an Indo-Pacific concept that asserts ASEAN centrality and they provided positive responses.

She said continuing dialogue within the regional framework was the way to turn the competition among major powers into cooperation, as continuous dialogue was also the very heartbeat of ASEAN over its 50 years.

During the retreat session, Jokowi urged ASEAN to become the motor creating an environment that enables an Indo-Pacific community to promote dialogue, compliance with international laws and peaceful dispute resolution.

“ASEAN must be able to become the motor for managing security challenges, both traditional and non-traditional security issues,” Retno said.

The Indo-Pacific agenda was also expected to foster economic cooperation between countries and business players in the Pacific and Indian oceans through a building block approach, such as by networking business forums of the Indian Ocean Rim Association with the Asia-Pacifc Economic Cooperation, she said.

Retno added that Indonesia would continue to engage with its regional peers and other countries to explore Indo-Pacific cooperation, which would also be discussed in the East Asia Summit later this year.

Vietnam and Thailand welcomed the regional framework concept during the retreat session, Retno said, adding that she believed other member states would soon deliver positive responses.