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Nordic Council can inspire ASEAN integration
At the end of the day, the "ASEAN way" is just an excuse to justify inaction, passivity and lack of audacity.
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Posing for a family photo, (from left to right), Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sarun Charoensuwan, Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Japan's Prime Minster Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao attend the ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Jakarta, on Sept. 6, 2023. Tatan Syuflana/Pool via REUTERS (Reuters/POOL)
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evisiting a model of regional cooperation thousands of miles away could perhaps offer some fresh ideas on how a restricted group of nations within Southeast Asia can forge a better path together.
I am referring to one of least visible but at the same time effective examples of regional partnerships, the Nordic Cooperation This is an institutional framework that brings together the governments and members of the parliaments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
In a true innovation, three autonomous, self-governing entities, Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland, the latter an autonomous predominantly Swedish-speaking island formally under Finland, while Faroe Islands and Greenland are self-standing political entities in a union with Denmark.
Nordic affairs are pretty low profile and possibly this is one of the secrets behind the cooperation’s success story.
We could hardly conceive of more different regions than Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. You name it, from food to culture to languages, we can hardly find any commonalities.
Yet, the Nordic way of regional cooperation offers interesting insights into how Southeast Asia’s process of regional cooperation and integration could evolve.
The bottom line, and truly simplifying the process, the Nordic Cooperation consists of the Nordic Council of Ministers which brings together all the heads of government and the Nordic Council, comprising members of the parliaments of the respective member nations and territories.
