Panchali Saikia
Research Officer, IPCS
Tehelka.com (India)
UNDER THE theme ‘ASEAN: One Community, One Destiny’, the 20th ASEAN summit had much to talk about than what it had set as an agenda. Marking the 45th anniversary of the regional bloc, the Summit was held at Phnom Penh, Cambodia from April 3-4, 2012. After the two-day session, four major documents were adopted by the leaders of the Association, ‘Phnom Penh Declaration on ASEAN: One Community, One Destiny’, ‘Phnom Penh Agenda on ASEAN Community Building’, ‘ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Drug-Free ASEAN 2015’, and ‘ASEAN Concept Paper on Global Movement of the Moderates (GMM)’.
The opening address and the closing remarks of the Summit by the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen were focussed on building a road map to meet ASEAN integration goal and forming legal instruments for interpreting and monitoring the implementation of the ASEAN Master Plan on Connectivity. He also outlined a seven-point Phnom Penh Agenda, which called for strengthened mechanism for financial stability and priority for the ASEAN Economic Community. ASEAN has been relatively successful in building connectivity within the region and it seems it won’t be tough for them to achieve what has been projected. However, with looming concerns over the internal and regional security aspects, will the region be able to realise their goals?
The ASEAN’s dialogue partners have offered support to the ASEAN community masterplan in 2011 and with the other sub-regional cooperation in the region such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region Cooperation the association have been doing concrete projects on connectivity. Notable among them are the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link, the ASEAN Highway Network and Greater Mekong Sub-region Economic Corridors. The bloc members need to broaden their vision from the ASEAN community to Asian community and emphasise on extending economic linkages and transport networking to India and other South Asian countries. The GMS Southern Economic Corridor alignment (Ho Chi Minh City-Phnom Penh-Bangkok) further extended to Dawei in Myanmar can provide an alternative sea route to connect India and Southeast Asia and would reduce congestion in the Malacca Strait. The historic win of the pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s leading party in Myanmar byelection followed by the ASEAN leaders’ statements for lifting sanctions on Myanmar has opened opportunities not only for the country but also for the region.
ASEAN’s major challenge is to prevent conflicts in the South China Sea
However, with this major development the Summit stated focus to achieve the ASEAN community has been alarmed by the concern raised over the North Korean rocket launch. Pyongyang has planned to place the launch from April 12-16 celebrating the 100th year since the birth of late founder Kim Il-sung. The Philippines Prime Minister has expressed concern stating that although the North Koreans have claimed it to be an earth observation satellite, it is widely believed to be a long range ballistic missile and there is a danger of parts falling in Southeast Asia. ASEAN community vis-a-vis the global community is too ambitious with the looming challenges around the region. The attempts by ASEAN and China to forge a pact aimed at preventing territorial conflicts in the South China sea is one of the major challenges to ASEAN.
The year 2012 is believed to bring a new development in the security architecture of the South China Sea with Cambodia heading the ASEAN Chair for 2012. A decade ago on November 4, 2002, under the leadership of Cambodia, ASEAN countries along with China signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). Will Cambodia be able to repeat a similar historic success bring both ASEAN and China to sign a Code of Conduct (COC)?
The opinions are the author’s own
No comments:
Post a Comment