ASEAN: Annual Summit of Heads of State and Government Begins in Laos

These days, Vientiane, the capital of Laos, acting president of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is hosting several important forums, from the ASEAN Heads of State and Government Summit to the summit between ASEAN and its strategic partner countries: India, Australia, Russia, Japan, USA, South Korea, and China. Negotiations will also take place within the ASEAN+3 framework with China, Japan, and South Korea. The high-level week in Laos will conclude with the East Asia Summit (EAS), which brings together ten ASEAN countries, as well as Australia, China, and South Korea, Japan, India, New Zealand, Russia, which will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and the USA, which will be represented by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is the most influential international organization in the Asia-Pacific region, uniting Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It should be noted, among other things, that the Vientiane meetings represent the “international debut” of Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took over the reins of government in Tokyo early last week.

Vientiane authorities proposed economics and sustainable development as the central theme of the summit: “ASEAN: Strengthening Connectivity and Sustainability.” According to Foreign Minister of Laos Saleumxay Kommasith (pictured), “the large region faces many challenges, including a fragile post-covid recovery with persistent economic and financial difficulties, the impact of climate change and natural disasters, traditional and non-traditional security threats.”

In this context, like it or not, regional crises continue to dominate the ASEAN summit agenda, including violence in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and tensions between China and the Philippines, following Manila’s rapid strategic rapprochement with the United States. Last week, Vietnam also reported an attack by Chinese military boats on its fishermen near Chinese-controlled islands also claimed by Hanoi.

In Myanmar, the tug-of-war between the government and the opposition has for some time escalated into a bitter civil war, which poses many security challenges for Myanmar’s neighbors – China, Bangladesh, India, and Thailand – who have to deal with streams of civilians and soldiers fleeing war zones, increased cross-border criminal activity, including drug trafficking, especially along the Myanmar-Thailand borders.

In April 2021, to restore peace in Myanmar, ASEAN adopted a policy document called the Five Point Consensus, but in the past three years, the Association’s countries have managed to do little or nothing to stop the bloodshed. Therefore, at the opening of the summit in Vientiane, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called on ASEAN to “play a much more active and important role in bringing peace to Myanmar as soon as possible” and said that “it will work with Malaysia to use diplomatic means to promote a political solution to the armed conflict.”