In 1967, as the Cold War was at its height, five countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand — decided to embark on a path of regional cooperation with the initial goal of opposing communism. Today, after bracing the peaks and troughs of more than five decades in which it expanded its membership to a total of 10 nations and enlarging areas of cooperation, the organisation, which is seen as a rare example of cooperation in one of the most culturally and politically diverse regions, is trying to protect itself from becoming the new age proxy battlefield.
On September 5, at the 43rd summit of the Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesian President Joko Widodo opened the event by saying the grouping had agreed to not be a “proxy” to any powers, in a veiled reference to the growing competition between China and the U.S. to assert influence in the region. “Don’t turn our ship into an arena for rivalry that is destructive,” the leader warned as top officials from both countries were in attendance .
ASEAN, while being lauded by some and written off by others for the way it functions, continues to pride itself on its two core operating principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of its members and consensual decision-making. It also strives to maintain what it describes as “centrality”. Article 1.15 of the ASEAN Charter states that the group’s main objective is to maintain ASEAN’s centrality, which essentially means being in the driver’s seat.
