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ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook: Low hanging fruit?
Even as the 10-member organization puts together its plan of action to follow up on the outlook, some collaboration programs under the Indo-Pacific regional architecture can be already undertaken to highlight its benefits, its potential and its immense possibilities.
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This photo shows a worker cycling past life-size portraits of the 10 leaders of ASEAN as a government booth is dismantled following a cultural festival at Lumpini Park in Bangkok. (AFP/Romeo Gacad)
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ow that ASEAN has come up with a common vision of what the future of the Indo-Pacific region should look like, what will be the next steps?
The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, endorsed by leaders in their summit in Bangkok in July, still has to gain a stronger foothold within ASEAN itself, before gaining wider acceptance from outside, particularly from countries with a stake in the region’s future.
Even as the 10-member organization puts together its plan of action to follow up on the outlook, some collaboration programs under the Indo-Pacific regional architecture can be already undertaken to highlight its benefits, its potential and its immense possibilities. ASEAN can start with the low hanging fruit approach through programs involving two or more countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
One example is the development of business connectivity between Indonesia’s northern Aceh province and India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean. This program falls under the Shared Vision of the India-Indonesia Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, combining Indonesia’s Global Maritime Fulcrum and India’s Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR).
This initial bilateral program could easily be expanded into a multilateral program by bringing the existing Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle into the picture.
Rather than substituting or undermining other Indo-Pacific concepts already on the table, the ASEAN Outlook can work in conjunction with them. Besides SAGAR, there is Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, which recognizes ASEAN’s central and pivotal role in building connectivity to link countries straddling the Pacific and Indian oceans.
