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Labuan Bajo summit to take on ASEAN housekeeping
ASEAN housekeeping in the pipeline to ensure relevance, centrality.
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People pose with the newly set-up ASEAN logo, as Indonesia officially assumes the group's chairmanship following a ceremony in Jakarta on Jan. 29. (AFP/Goh Chai Hin)
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mid layered challenges lingering outside and inside of Southeast Asia, the upcoming ASEAN Summit would seek to improve some of the association’s long-standing mechanism issues as well as finalize several of its short-term goals, including human trafficking and Timor Leste membership, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said.
Ensuring ASEAN’s relevance and centrality amid an ever-dynamic global landscape, shielding the region’s economic stability and establishing a solid vision of ASEAN’s future were all parts of the lengthy to-do list for the summit that would commence in less than 10 days, in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Retno said in a recent interview.
Meanwhile, experts increased their expectations that the week-long meeting leading up to the 42nd ASEAN Summit would show part of Indonesia’s hand, after over four months of taking the “quiet diplomacy” route to tackle some of the region’s most sensitive issues.
Indonesia’s chairmanship, themed ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth, came as the region was faced with tremendous tribulations, both stemming from external geopolitical tensions and internal challenges.
Some of the region’s most pressing issues, such as the South China Sea dispute, geopolitical tensions and the Myanmar crisis have long remained unresolved.
Amid heightened tensions felt across Southeast Asia, recent surveys showed the public’s dwindling confidence in the association, naming “slowness and ineffectiveness” as reasons for their concern.
But Jakarta has been insistent that ensuring ASEAN’s relevance is among their primary priorities, a pledge it has repeated since January.
