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ASEAN calls on EAS to press pause on conflict
ASEAN has managed to achieve consensus in issuing the East Asia Summit leaders’ joint statement on maintaining and promoting the Indo-Pacific as an epicenter of growth, effectively eschewing conflict in favor of cooperation.
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (second left) and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (second right) shake hands as they enter with United States Vice President Kamala Harris (center) to attend the 18th East Asia Summit during the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta on Sept. 7, 2023. (Reuters/POOL)
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SEAN on Thursday drew out commitments from major powers in the Indo-Pacific to set aside their differences and commit to creating “space for dialogue”, as Indonesia wraps up its chairmanship with a pledge to continue prioritizing collaboration at the next multilateral summit.
Jakarta headed into the third and final day of meetings with the 18th East Asia Summit (EAS), where top representatives from the region pledged to contribute to the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), a strategy of cooperation centered on the 10-nation bloc.
The summit came amid fraught tensions between Russia and the United States and its allies over the Ukraine war, as well as between China and Japan over the decision to dump treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
“After going through a difficult process, we finally agreed on the EAS leaders’ joint statement on the epicentrum of growth,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said at a concluding press conference in Jakarta.
The summit adopted a leaders’ statement which declared, among other things, an agreement to promote “an enabling environment for peace, stability, good governance, prosperity and sustainable development [by] ensuring a culture of dialogue and cooperation, enhancing mutual trust and confidence and respect for international law”.
Read also: ASEAN centrality and unity have never been this important
Indonesia also secured commitments from ASEAN partners to mainstream the AOIP, with the US and China putting out joint statements endorsing the strategy.
