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Inertia prevails at ASEAN summit
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Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesia's President Joko Widodo and wife Iriana, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his wife Louise Marcos, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong and wife Ho Ching (from left to right) sit on the deck of a pinisi boat during a sunset view event on the sidelines of the 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara on May 10, 2023. (AFP/Mast Irham)
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SEAN’s top leaders promised on Wednesday that they would “redouble” efforts to strengthen the association’s “institutional effectiveness”, as the continuing Myanmar coup crisis casts a pall over the biannual summit.
But Southeast Asia experts were doubtful that the bloc would have any significant success if it continued to fail to offer a clear outline of the practical steps it would take.
The situation in Myanmar, which has wreaked havoc on ASEAN’s credibility as a defiant junta highlights the bloc’s disunity and the divergent interests of its member countries, has increased the pressure on the group to enact reforms. Observers contend that only institutional change could allow ASEAN to establish itself as a central player in the highly contested Indo-Pacific region.
The bloc was criticized last month when it issued a belated response to an airstrike on civilians by junta forces in Myanmar’s Sagaing region, reportedly because of a failure to reach a quick consensus. The attack reportedly killed more than 100 people, including women and children.
Belated statements and elusive consensuses were themes of the first ASEAN Summit of the year, which is usually reserved for “housekeeping” work, such as measuring the progress of ongoing regional projects and objectives.
The ASEAN leaders managed to issue a standalone statement condemning a Sunday attack against a humanitarian relief convoy in Myanmar that included Singaporean and Indonesian diplomats, demanding that the perpetrators be held accountable.
“We supported the efforts of the chair of ASEAN, including its continued engagements with all stakeholders in Myanmar, to encourage progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus,” they said in a statement.
