TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
US-China rivalry makes ASEAN vital, says ex-secretary general
"Both China and the US see the value of using ASEAN for their own respective national interests," Ong Keng Yong, secretary general of ASEAN for five years from January 2003, told Kyodo News in an online interview.
Change Size
US President Joe Biden participates virtually in the annual ASEAN Summit from the South Court Auditorium of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 26, 2021. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
A
SEAN is becoming increasingly important and adding to its strategic value as geopolitical tensions between the United States and China intensify, a seasoned Singaporean diplomat said recently.
"Both China and the US see the value of using ASEAN for their own respective national interests," Ong Keng Yong, secretary general of ASEAN for five years from January 2003, told Kyodo News in an online interview.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations finds itself between the two major powers as their rivalry intensifies and each ramps up diplomatic lobbying.
The Biden administration, which has just marked its first anniversary, has been focusing on engagement in Southeast Asia amid Beijing's ongoing quest to expand its regional clout.
Last year, the United States sent senior officials to the region regularly. President Joe Biden also joined a virtual meeting of the US-ASEAN summit, excluding Myanmar, in October in sharp contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump who largely shunned multilateralism and only attended in 2017.
Ong, currently serving as the executive deputy chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, welcomed the involvement of the United States.
"During the Trump era, there was some dissatisfaction among ASEAN member states," said Ong, adding the diplomatic efforts to demonstrate US engagement were "minimal" and led to ASEAN members feeling "somewhat sidelined."
