PRESIDENT Marcos Jr is in Indonesia attending the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and related meetings, and those who took it upon themselves to count or monitor the President’s foreign trips would note that this is his third visit to Indonesia.
The summit will be held in Jakarta from September 5 to 7. Aside from the 43rd ASEAN Summit plenary session and the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum, the President’s scheduled engagements are mostly bilateral meetings with other heads of state of the regional grouping.
Marcos delivered a speech before his departure, during which he cited the advocacies and issues that he wanted pushed in the summit. He said, “My participation will highlight our advocacies in promoting rules-based international order, including in the South China Sea, strengthening food security, calling for climate justice, tapping the potential of the digital and creative economies, protecting migrant workers in crisis situations, as well as combating trafficking in persons.”
‘… we wonder if Bongbong Marcos would be able to convince his ASEAN co-leaders to at least manifest a statement, succeeding where the gutsy Duterte failed.’
The President also noted that the second ASEAN Summit this year provides an opportunity for the regional bloc to deepen its robust partnerships with Australia, Canada, India, China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and the United Nations. Also of importance in the Jakarta meetings are the ASEAN Plus Three and East Asia Summits during which Marcos is expected to discuss recent developments in the South China Sea, the political situation in Myanmar, the war in Ukraine as well as major political rivalries.
Established on Aug. 8, 1967, ASEAN is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia.
As a regional venue for exchanging ideas and plans, and as a biannual social club where leaders get to know each other more, the ASEAN Summit may pass the test of relevance. But on the matter of following through the implementation of agreements and taking a stand on important issues such as the perceived aggressiveness of China in the South China Sea, this regional group has been weighed and found wanting.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte, at the summit in Laos in 2016, insisted that the Philippine dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea should be resolved within the boundaries of the law, referring to the arbitral ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration released in July 2016. This was supported by then Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe but was met with silence in the circle of ASEAN heads of states.
Recently, China released a official map of its territory, and the nine-dash-line previously invalidated by the arbitral ruling was ramped up to a 10-dash-line to include the island of Taiwan, evoking protests from Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India. Given this new development, we wonder if Bongbong Marcos would be able to convince his ASEAN co-leaders to at least manifest a statement, succeeding where the gutsy Duterte failed.
It is time for ASEAN leaders to flesh out their 2003 signed Bali Concord II declaration which sets up an ASEAN community founded on three pillars, namely “political and security cooperation, economic cooperation, and socio-cultural cooperation; for the purpose of ensuring durable peace, stability and shared prosperity in the region.”
It is either this or ASEAN remains just an expensive club where leaders gather to talk shop.
