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ASEAN security platform revival ‘not enough’ without larger reforms
The Southeast Asian bloc must find ways to make its security forum go beyond dialogues in contributing to global and regional conflict prevention and resolution, experts have concurred.
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People walk past ASEAN-member nation flags outside the Pullman Hotel, the venue for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' (AMM) retreat meeting, in Luang Prabang, Laos, on Jan. 27, 2024. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)
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mid conflicts in some of the world’s geopolitical hotspots and member states increasingly forming independent security alliances, ASEAN’s plan to revive its security dialogue forum will be an arduous task without larger improvements within the bloc, analysts have said.
Should the plan fail or be conducted haphazardly, experts warn that such a forum, which has stalled for decades and been unable to move beyond discussions, could jeopardize the regional association’s relevance.
During the first ASEAN ministerial meeting under Laos’ chairmanship earlier this week, top diplomats from across Southeast Asia convened under the cloud of conflicts that pose threats to the region’s political stability and security, and the weight of the long-overdue task of revamping some of the bloc’s crucial mechanisms to respond to such challenges.
Among the list of concerns were the crises in Myanmar and the South China Sea as well as war in Ukraine and the Middle East. They served as the backdrop to ASEAN’s attempts to reaffirm its centrality through promoting its dialogue-led mechanisms.
One of these mechanisms was the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the bloc’s annual security platform with 27 members including the United States, China, Russia and North Korea. Its establishment was meant to enable conflict prevention and resolution through confidence-building measures.
However, the ARF, which was initially esteemed for its inclusive membership, has been consistently criticized in the following decades for its perceived ineffectiveness in convincing its own members against conflicting with one another and causing tensions in the region.
Read also: ASEAN backs ‘Myanmar-owned’ solution to crisis
