This complex mechanism offers the rare opportunity to have almost all the major players (after all Latin America and Africa are not represented) sitting at the same table or in a nearby room.

Will the deliberations bring about some tangible achievements for humanity and for the planet?

Possibly it is high time for a détente among the US, China and the EU.

Even though China suddenly canceled a meeting with Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and vice president of the European Commission, relationships among these centers of power seem to be destined to be, once again, “normalized”.

The recent visits of high level US officials to Beijing, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the tour to Europe by the new Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang do offer some hope that the existing tensions, while they are impossible to completely set aside, can give some space for dialogue.

From climate change and biodiversity loss to the rise of artificial intelligence, there are plenty of issues that world powers can focus on.

Let us not also forget that the latest report by the United Nations secretary-general on the status of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), once again, provides a very dim prospect of the chances of the international community achieving Agenda 2030.

Bottom line, we are still very far from being on track to reach the 17 most important goals that humanity decided, back in 2015, to work on, goals whose achievement the destiny of the world is tied to.

To remind the world leaders of their commitments toward Agenda 2030, the UN will host in September the SDG Summit, which most heads of state and government will attend. It is a crucial date because only tangible commitments rather than voluntary pledges that will mostly go unchecked, can ensure that we will be back on track to our “Mission 2030”.

The SDGs are seen as apolitical, a soft topic and let them remain this way because they can really become the epicenter of a new multilateralism that UN Secretary-General Guterres has been so desperate to call for.

Ensuring that the SDG Summit is going to be a real success story could be on the top list of the items to be discussed by the foreign ministers gathering these days in Jakarta.

In addition the ongoing climate negotiations leading to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai are not moving forward with the sense of urgency we should expect.

The negotiations on the Loss and Damage Fund, the New Collective Quantified Goal for Climate Finance and the Global Stocktake are key issues that must be finalized with a high level of ambition. They are all related to exponentially increasing the funding at disposal of developing and emerging nations while also bringing up the necessary accountability mechanisms to keep pressure on nations to deliver what they have promised.

Plus fossil fuels should finally end up being singled out in the final outcomes of the COP28.

What have all these issues to do with ASEAN? Will the AMM be able to generate momentum on the most pressing global issues rather than just producing (as always) a multitude of dry declarations and loose action plans?

Answering the first question requires thinking of ASEAN as a regional powerhouse with global ambition.

We know that, in reality, it is not a community of common values because high principles are too often swept under the carpet, if not by all but by a good number of its members. Yet ASEAN should be a platform where, at least, the thorniest issues can be discussed even if inconclusively but nevertheless importantly because global powers peers could really start forging the beginning of a common stance.

Answering the second question is relatively easy though it is also deeply sad.

Most probably momentum will not be generated because ASEAN-driven initiatives are, generally speaking, and by design, the settings where formalities and procedures rather than real substantial discussions thrive.

If it is going to be so, this will be again a remarkable failure for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who many hoped would have “shaken” the ASEAN system with some novel initiatives and most importantly, with a new working approach.

Will at least the officials talk about the implications of the new emissions targets last week decided in London by the International Maritime Organization?

We do not need them to be found in a footnote of one of the official declarations, what is required is a real action plan on how Southeast Asia, with the cooperation of the international community, can truly transform its shipping industry.

It is obvious to say that, again the so-called ASEAN Sociocultural Community, will be totally absent from the discussions and apparently this is taken for granted because the focus is on, well, diplomacy.

But what is diplomacy for? We know it should not be this way.

The ASEAN Sociocultural Community that is “is all about realizing the full potential of ASEAN citizen” is still a “chimera” and likewise the implementation of the ASEAN Work Plan on Youth 2021-2025.

Here a quantum of self-introspection and honesty are required on the part of the leaders of ASEAN because no one better than youth can help come up with the solutions to the ongoing daunting challenges.

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The writer comments on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration, SDGs and human rights in the context of Asia Pacific.