Asean needs a 'reboot' to tackle global challenges: Regional leaders

Maintaining grouping's centrality key to handling issues like US-China rivalry

- Tan Tam Mei

Asean needs to relook how it tackles a range of global challenges that includes the geopolitical contest between the United States and China, and may need a "reboot" to maintain the grouping's centrality, a regional forum heard on Oct 28.

There is more pressure on the 10-member grouping these days to directly or indirectly choose sides, said Cambodian Senior Minister Sok Siphana, noting that this might be in specific fields such as technology and supply chains. "We will be asked to pick a side. And this dilemma is deeper than meets the eye."

The challenges range from territorial disputes and strategic uncertainties to the rise of economic nationalism within Asean and beyond. Other issues include the US-China strategic rivalry, increasing protectionism and the conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Myanmar.

Dr Sok noted that the US has, in the past decade, especially under former president Donald Trump, recalibrated its global commitments, while China has grown "readier and readier by the day" to assert its own version of world order.

Dr Sok is Senior Minister in charge of Special Missions (Multilateral Trade and Economic Affairs) and adviser to the Cambodia government.

Today, the US remains the No. 1 source of foreign direct investment in Asean, while the grouping's trade in goods with China has nearly tripled, from US$235.5 billion in 2010 to US$696.7 billion (S$922.2 billion) in 2023.