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View all search results‘Everything on track’ for Indonesia’s ASEAN chairmanship: Minister
RI’s chairmanship lacks transparency, say analysts.
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A
fter over three months and hundreds of closed-door meetings since the start of Indonesia’s chairmanship of ASEAN, “everything is on the right track”, said Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, as if to compensate for the apparent radio silence that has obscured progress on issues of regional concern.
The minister’s statement, made amid fast-changing realities witnessed by Southeast Asian nations in past months, reaffirmed that Jakarta’s focus remains centered on the three pillars of its agenda: emphasizing ASEAN centrality, ensuring economic growth and implementing its Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP).
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Retno explained that it was Indonesia’s priority that ASEAN’s capacity be “strengthened” under its leadership, such that it could effectively handle any present and upcoming challenges.
“There is an ongoing process at the moment to discuss an ASEAN leaders’ statement on the strengthening of ASEAN’s capacity and institutional effectiveness, which is to be adopted by the upcoming summit,” she announced.
The past few years have seen ASEAN struggle to earn the trust of its people, as intense geopolitical rivalries continue to shake up the region with little assurance that the association can efficiently rise to the occasion if any urgent security threats make themselves present.
A slow-moving process, red tape and an outdated charter remain ASEAN’s biggest weaknesses, critics say.
In the spirit of reaffirming centrality, ASEAN will continue to prioritize select issues, the minister said, including the advancement of the negotiations for the Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea, the strengthening of a regional human rights dialogue and the resumption of accessions to the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (SEANWFZ) protocol with nuclear-wielding nations.
