The ASEAN Indo-Pacific concept, which has been under discussion for more than a year, is being developed with the aim of uniting ASEAN to become an active part of an inclusive Indo-Pacific region.

Concerns have been growing in Southeast Asia that the absence of a unified ASEAN voice would allow for more great-power rivalry, particularly between the United States and China, in the region.

The ASEAN Indo-Pacific concept paper, which was agreed upon by senior officials in a meeting in Chiang Rai, Thailand in March, had been endorsed by all member countries except Singapore, which consequently would possibly postpone the planned adoption of the concept at the summit, the diplomat said recently.

With less than two weeks left before the ASEAN Summit on June 22 and 23 in Bangkok, the planned conclusion should already have been finalized by ASEAN, but Singapore instead asked ASEAN to have another discussion about the concept.

“[Singapore] argued that this concept still needed further discussion, but when asked what the issue in question was, the answer was unclear, even though it’s been discussed for over a year,” said the diplomat who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue.

Observers have noted that ASEAN’s voice was “scattered” and that it made the regional grouping look weak, as the diverging views of its member states would prevent it from emerging as a major power in the Indo-Pacific.

When asked for a comment about Singapore’s endorsement of the ASEAN Indo-Pacific concept, the Singapore Mission to ASEAN said ASEAN played an important role in ensuring regional order remained a priority.

“In this regard, Singapore supports any regional initiative that preserves ASEAN centrality and unity, advances economic engagement of our region and promotes a rules-based international order anchored upon international law,” the Singapore Mission to ASEAN said on Wednesday.

A research professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences’ Center for Political Studies, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, argued that there were no points in the proposal that would undermine ASEAN centrality and the position of the East Asia Summit (EAS) as the premier regional security architecture.

“If the rumor about Singapore blocking the concept is true, then it is damaging for ASEAN’s long-term interest,” she said, “I believe the Indo-Pacific concept is here to stay, so ASEAN cannot afford to dismiss it.”

The term “Indo-Pacific” has become popular for describing an evolving strategic concept for a vast regional framework for a political structure in the area straddling the Indian and Pacific oceans — interpretations of which, according to observers, vary depending on the geopolitical interests of the countries in the region.

Since United States President Donald Trump laid out a vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific in Vietnam in 2017, many countries have set their sights on the Indo-Pacific region and developed their own concepts, such as India’s Act East Policy, Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper.

Indonesia has been pushing for ASEAN to have its own stance on the matter, saying that an ASEAN-led Indo-Pacific regional architecture should be discussed in EAS because it already consisted of 10 ASEAN member states and countries that have their own Indo-Pacific interpretations.

Indonesia also wanted to include other countries interested in the region, like China with its Belt and Road Initiative and South Korea with its Look South Policy.

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