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Singapore 'holds back' adoption of ASEAN Indo-Pacific concept
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Catching up with the neighbors: The leaders of ASEAN member states, (from left) Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and Laos’ Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, pose for a group photo at the opening ceremony of the 33rd ASEAN summit in Singapore on Nov. 13, 2018. (AFP/Jewel Samad)
T
he planned conclusion and adoption of an ASEAN Indo-Pacific perspective in the upcoming ASEAN Summit this month might be delayed because Singapore has yet to endorse it, a diplomat familiar with the issue has said.
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.
Read also: Insight: Time to deepen Indo-Pacific cooperation
