By V.Sankara
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (NNN-Bernama) — ASEAN should review its strategies in order to survive and stay balanced from the impact of the fast growing geopolitical competition between China and the United States (US), says a policy analyst from Cambodia.
Dr Seun Sam, from the Royal Academy of Cambodia said ASEAN should chart new strategies to bolster regional stability and strengthen its position amid tensions between the two countries.
“ASEAN should not allow US and China control everything in ASEAN…ASEAN should have specific strategy to shape the impact resulting from the fast growing competition between US and China,” he said to Bernama after the two-day “EU-ASEAN At 45: From Dialogue Partnership to Strategic Partnership” international symposium, that ended here, Thursday.
Dr Seun was the panelists at the symposium for the session titled ‘EU, ASEAN and the Emerging Regional Order: Navigating Strategic Anxieties moderated by Senior Lecturer of Faculty of Business and Economics, University Malaya Dr Kevin Fernandez.
The symposium organised by Centre for ASEAN Regionalism Universiti Malaya (CARUM) is held to mark 45 years of ASEAN-EU relations and as a prelude to the ASEAN-EU Summit which will be held in Brussels, on Dec 14.
Dr Seun Sam said with the rapidly escalating Sino-US rivalry, coupled with the emerging Indo-Pacific order, ASEAN should recalibrate or review strategies in order to mitigate the threats posed by these strategic uncertainties and smartly position itself in the ever so called complicated US-China relationship.
EU became ASEAN dialogue partner in 1997. It acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) in July 2012, becoming the first regional organisation to TAC.
In Dec 2020, ASEAN and EU elevated their relationship to strategic partnership.
ASEAN, the acronym for Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was established on 8 August 1967 with its members being Brunei, Cambodia, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and the latest member being Timor Leste.
— NNN-BERNAMA