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Analysts questions longevity after US-ASEAN summit wraps up
Pundits are questioning the long-term reliability and vision of US-ASEAN cooperation, with the region often overlooked in the superpower's Indo-Pacific strategy.
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President Joko Widodo (fifth right) poses with United States President Joe Biden (center), as well as his ASEAN counterparts who attended the US-ASEAN Special Summit, during a group photo on May 12, 2022 on the White House South Lawn in Washington, D.C. The other Southeast Asian leaders pictured are (from left): ASEAN Secretary -General Lim Jock Hoi, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long, Laos Prime Minister Phankham Viphavan, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin. (AFP/Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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xperts are divided about the Joe Biden administration’s plan to usher in a “new era” of United States-Southeast Asia relations following the conclusion to last week’s US-ASEAN Special Summit in Washington, D.C.
President Biden hosted eight ASEAN leaders, including President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, as well as the regional grouping’s secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi over two days of meetings that covered a broad range of issues, from health security to climate action, and from expanding education access to enhancing maritime cooperation.
The US-ASEAN summit was only the second meeting of its kind since February 2016, a year before Donald Trump ascended to the presidency and limited the scope of that country’s Asian interests to China and North Korea.
“I hope this meeting can build momentum for the return of the US presence in the region,” President Jokowi said on Thursday at a separate meeting with the US-ASEAN Business Council.
The US-ASEAN Special Summit produced a 28-point vision statement, which analysts hailed as a blend of ASEAN and US values, but it also prompted skepticism over the sustainability of Washington’s efforts to refocus on the region.
Despite 45 years of maintaining ties with Southeast Asia, the US continues to fall behind China, a strategic rival whose circle of influence it is seeking to limit by leveraging alliances in the Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, Biden is set to travel to Japan in the coming weeks for another summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which also includes Australia and India.
According to the US-ASEAN vision statement, the two sides are committed to upgrading the US-ASEAN relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership (CSP) in November, which would buoy Washington’s status above the grouping’s other dialogue partners.
