ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), COVID-19, and the future of ASEAN’s centrality

On August 4th-6th 2020, the Institute for International Affairs (RSIS), Nanyang University of Technology, Singapore held a series of online seminars with the topic “ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), COVID-19, and the future of ASEAN’s centrality”. Dr. Le Dinh Tinh, Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, will be preseting at the session 2 of this series of seminars.

The increasing influence of great powers has prompted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to introduce the Indo-Pacific Outlook (AOIP) in 2019. Amidst competitive visions of India - The Pacific, AOIP has added to the Indo-Pacific debate, emphasizing the need for an inclusive and collaborative multilateral framework. However, tensions between the United States and China have escalated further in 2020 amid the COVID-19 global pandemic. Instead of cooperating, COVID-19 added Sino-American tensions that undermined multilateral solutions to global challenges, including COVID-19. When building AOIP, ASEAN has tried to reaffirm its voice on geopolitical changes in the broader region. However, with key meetings postponed, such as the US-ASEAN Summit in Las Vegas, and an ASEAN-led summit limited to online form, ASEAN will be unlikely to increase. strengthen your role in the increasingly complex geopolitical landscape. ASEAN is now in a difficult position as ASEAN's centrality, which was so important previously in sustaining cooperation and moving the region out of the Cold War bipolarity, is once again challenged. The central role is manifested in the influence of great powers through persuasion rather than coercion, with ASEAN being the only accepted platform for all external powers to participate in the region. But do these assumptions remain in the face of increasing superpower tensions? How can ASEAN's vision of an inclusive and cooperative Indo-Pacific - rather than split and confrontational - translate into reality and deliver clear results in a regional order post-COVID? RSIS's Center for Multilateralism (CMS) has hosted this online seminar series to discuss the complex geopolitical environment facing ASEAN and to answer the questions in detail. and many other questions./.

Find more details of the seminar at: https://youtu.be/YqwmPDEazPM