Kevin Rudd (AFP/Getty Images)

ASEAN should look to expand and strengthen the role of existing regional architecture — particularly the East Asia Summit (EAS) — to include the strategic realities that underpin the entire Indo-Pacific region, according to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Speaking at a seminar on the effects that a United States-China rivalry has on Southeast Asia, Rudd urged the regional grouping to make the EAS a more robust forum so it could become the central institution responsible for regional security policymaking and “the source of confidence and security-building measures”.

“ASEAN cannot simply focus its energy inwards, though I know there are many individual and internal questions to be resolved,” Rudd told a recent Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) forum in Jakarta.

Southeast Asia has been the main area of power contestation between the US and China, with both sides seeking to outmuscle the other in a number of vital global trade routes, including the South China Sea, through which some US$5 trillion in goods passes each year. The two sides resumed high-level talks on security issues on Friday, after months of spiraling tensions.

As the main multilateral security framework in the region, ASEAN has for the past few years held onto the mantra of “unity and centrality” in an effort to minimize the effects of the great powers’ rivalry, which has worsened because of the ongoing trade war.

US President Donald Trump has slapped $250 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, accusing Beijing of nefarious trading practices, prompting retaliatory measures.

According to Rudd, now an international relations expert at the US-based Asia Society Policy Institute, ASEAN member states should never allow the US and China to make them choose one over the other.

“I would recommend to my friends in Indonesia and in ASEAN that a balanced policy and balanced strategy is possible,” he told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Thursday evening.

One good way for ASEAN to maintain this balance, he argued, was by building up its own regional institutions, especially the EAS, a forum of 18 partner countries from the wider Indo-Pacific region.

A more robust institution would allow all the countries to discuss, debate and resolve regional security questions together rather than bilaterally, he said. “So don’t allow anyone to confuse you about this being a mutually exclusive and zero-sum game — it’s not.”

Leaders of ASEAN and other powers in the region will meet next week in Singapore for the ASEAN Summit and related meetings, including the EAS.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is expected to table at the EAS an Indonesian vision for an Indo-Pacific strategy, an increasingly popular concept for a region that straddles the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Indonesia has been pushing for a more institutionalized Indo-Pacific strategy under the EAS, an ASEAN-led initiative.

During the FPCI seminar, Rudd also criticized Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrisson’s plan to relocate Canberra’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He said that measure would not only damage Australia’s relations with Muslim countries in the region and globally, but also endanger the security of the country.

“I think it is not a smart action. This is not only because this is a sensitive issue especially for the Muslim countries, but also [for] the peace progress in the Middle East,” the ex-diplomat said.

Canberra’s plan has stoked tension with Indonesia.

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