recent ‘Statement from ASEAN Leaders on ASEAN Outlook for the Indo-Pacific for a future-ready ASEAN and ASEAN-centric regional architecture‘The title is long, but the core message is clear. In other words, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to remain the primary regional organization that addresses Asia’s regional challenges. The declaration, issued on 9 October 2024 at the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, highlights ASEAN’s commitment to creating a peaceful environment amidst regional and global uncertainty. Consistent with previous statements, it highlights ASEAN’s role in promoting inclusive cooperation, maintaining peace, upholding international law, and fostering regionalism and multilateralism. The core of the declaration is to reiterate ASEAN’s commitments to:ASEAN centrality,” especially in light of the changing geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.
This year’s declaration, which emphasized peace and stability, stands in stark contrast to the 2023 declaration. Among the seven statements announced at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in 2023 Declaration by ASEAN leaders that ASEAN is a center of growth Presented the leader’s key messages. The declaration began by acknowledging the destructive power of geopolitical change, but focused primarily on resilience and growth, but also focused on health, climate change, disaster preparedness, food security, energy systems, macroeconomic stability, and supply chain connectivity. Growth drivers included global supply chains, digital transformation, and efforts towards a green, blue, creative and inclusive economy. From this perspective, the 2023 Declaration positioned ASEAN as an “epicenter of growth” and prioritized economic and socio-cultural resilience over political and security concerns. In contrast, the 2024 Declaration shifts the focus, elevating the political security pillar to prominence. This is a notable realignment of ASEAN’s priorities in one year.
The 2024 Declaration revisits familiar ASEAN themes, now with a much stronger emphasis on security. It reaffirms ASEAN’s leadership in maintaining regional stability, emphasizes ASEAN-led mechanisms, and advocates regionalism as a path to peaceful conflict resolution. This declaration is in accordance with the UN Charter, ASEAN Charter and Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). It also promotes comprehensive cooperation and seeks support from regional partners. However, it makes it clear that the Indo-Pacific regional architecture must remain firmly ASEAN-centric and emphasizes ASEAN’s essential role in the region.
Why does ASEAN’s centrality require such strong reaffirmation? As the Indo-Pacific region has emerged as a strategic framework in recent years, challenge ASEAN’s role as a major regional organization in the Asia-Pacific. Critics have questioned ASEAN’s slow decision-making and limited enforcement capabilities. It undermines our ability to address the complex security environment in the Indo-Pacific.. But such criticismSometimes, as a result of comparative bias in regional studies, there is a tendency to easily forget ASEAN’s unique role as a regional actor. Unlike the European Union (EU), a supranational organization focused on deep integration, ASEAN was established as an intergovernmental organization with the primary goals of fostering regional peace, security, and mutual respect. While both organizations promote peace through economic development, ASEAN prioritizes preserving the national sovereignty of its various member states rather than jointly leveraging their sovereignty.
The emphasis on sovereignty creates more complex decision-making processes that may limit ASEAN’s flexibility. But this very structure highlights ASEAN’s strength: its capacity to build consensus and serve as an important platform for dialogue. The ASEAN Way, which prioritizes non-interference, mutual respect, and consensus building, has played an important role in maintaining regional stability and dialogue between great powers. In the Indo-Pacific era ASEAN’s convening powerThe ability to bring diverse entities together for dialogue and collaboration remains our greatest asset. For example, the uniqueness of the organizational convening capabilities demonstrated in the ASEAN Regional Forum is key to ASEAN’s continued relevance, especially in an increasingly competitive geopolitical environment with tensions between the United States and China. As levels of polarization increase, so too does the potential for organizations to navigate these situations, as they have historically been more non-aligned. The Indo-Pacific region is a region where great power competition is expanding.
The Indo-Pacific is often described as a transformative change in the Asian geopolitical landscape. However, ASEAN’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific primarily extends until 2019. ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) – suggests continuity rather than disruption. The decision of Southeast Asian countries to adopt AOIP as a regional strategy to collectively define their position on the Indo-Pacific, rather than pursuing individual domestic strategies, perfectly illustrates this continuity.
Recent debates over the future of Indonesia’s foreign policy reflect a broader emphasis on newness related to the Indo-Pacific and provide valuable insight into how ASEAN’s centrality in the Indo-Pacific is currently being debated. as follows: main advocate For the adoption of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), Indonesia played a pivotal role in aligning the new Indo-Pacific concept with ASEAN’s existing values of stability, cooperation and inclusiveness. However, some analysts speculate: Indonesia may move away from the Indo-Pacific below Prabowo administration He came to power a month ago. This perspective reflects the academic tendency to approach regional studies primarily from the perspective of great power politics. As the geographical and institutional heart of ASEAN, Indonesia cannot “turn away” from its neighbors, and the emergence of the Indo-Pacific will not change this. Despite embracing the term, ASEAN’s outlook on the Indo-Pacific reflects Indonesia’s commitment to embedding ASEAN values in the Indo-Pacific framework, strengthening ASEAN principles rather than a paradigm shift.
Under former President Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs championed the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook (AOIP), led by Retno Marsudi, as a key element of Indonesia’s foreign policy. This advocacy reflects Indonesia’s view of the Indo-Pacific as a natural extension of the ASEAN core. Each successive Indonesian administration may seek to differentiate its foreign policy with new groundbreaking concepts, but the AOIP, based on ASEAN’s long-standing centrality principle, ensures its continued relevance for both Indonesia and ASEAN. From an outside perspective, ASEAN’s adoption of the Indo-Pacific terminology may appear to be a significant change. Indeed, for the political elites involved in the development and institutionalization of the AOIP, the Indo-Pacific concept strongly reaffirms ASEAN’s role as a stabilizing force rather than introducing radical change. In other words, the document signals a reaffirmation of ASEAN’s (and by extension Indonesia’s) commitment to the organization’s continued centrality in addressing issues important to Southeast Asian countries, regardless of whether it identifies Southeast Asia as part of the Indo-Pacific.
mentioned above declaration It highlights ASEAN’s continued efforts to remain central to regional affairs, even in the much expanded Indo-Pacific region. The Leader’s Declaration reiterates ASEAN’s readiness to address contemporary regional challenges and its pivotal role in shaping the architecture of the Indo-Pacific region by emphasizing centrality, stability and inclusive cooperation. We also invite external partners to support the AOIP in line with ASEAN principles. This reaffirmation of ASEAN’s role is not a departure from tradition, but rather a continuation of a long-standing commitment to Asian regionalism.
ASEAN’s vision for the Indo-Pacific is firmly anchored in its core principles of centrality, multilateralism and inclusiveness. While the Indo-Pacific concept has gained global traction in thinking about modern Asia, ASEAN’s commitment to (regional) multilateralism ensures its relevance as a key regional forum. At the same time, declarations such as the 2024 Leaders’ Declaration emphasize the organization’s commitment to peace, connectivity and cooperation, reinforcing its continued role in the regional architecture of Asia. Amid geopolitical uncertainty, the ‘critical’ message of ASEAN’s centrality is more important than ever in the Indo-Pacific.
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