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Economic integration crucial for Asean

JOY FANG

Ambassador-at-Large Bilahari Kausikan, who is also Policy Advisor at the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry, at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' Regional Outlook Forum 2015. Photo: Facebook/ISEAS)

Ambassador-at-Large Bilahari Kausikan, who is also Policy Advisor at the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry, at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' Regional Outlook Forum 2015. Photo: Facebook/ISEAS)

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SINGAPORE — Even though the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) is not going to be in the driver’s seat in the region   in which it could rise to a position where it is able to hold its own against two superpowers  it is still important for the grouping to pursue its integration plans, said Mr Bilahari Kausikan, Ambassador-at-Large at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yesterday.

Mr Kausikan, who is known to be unafraid to speak his mind, said: “The key decisions are always going to be made in Washington DC, Beijing and Tokyo and not in any ASEAN capital. Still, one crucial factor is within ASEAN’s grasp, and this is to continue ASEAN’s own economic integration project ... Without economic integration, the centrifugal forces generated by China’s growth will at least loosen and may well destroy the nascent development of the South-east Asian identity.”

However, he noted that the ASEAN needs to step up its game after the first phase of its economic integration plans this year, which he describes as completing just “the easy things”.

More difficult decisions are in store at a time when “rigidities can emerge in ASEAN decision-making processes”, and when domestic politics for all members complicate matters, making consensus more difficult, he said.

Different economic and security imperatives will also pull ASEAN members in different directions, so continuing integration will require sustained political will, he added.

Mr Kausikan, who is also the ministry’s policy adviser, was giving the keynote speech at the Regional Outlook Forum organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

He also criticised Western nations, noting that their “meddling” in Asian affairs is “a habit that many in the West seem unable to shake off, even when they lack the capability to do anything effective”.

American politicians do not always sufficiently understand how their words “may grate on foreign ears” or have strategic consequences.

China, too, has not been consistent in its handling of regional tensions. While it relies on international law on occasion to settle boundary disputes, such as with Vietnam, it is increasingly defining its place in the South China Sea based on its historical rights, Mr Kausikan added.

“This is disturbing because China has such a long history that it can be used to justify almost anything,” he said, adding that the Asian power also needs to stop basing its power on its imperial past.

ASEAN needs to maintain good relations with both China and the United States, but it can do so only if it remains neutral and the major powers do not make the region choose one or the other.

“American and Chinese leaders have said that the region is big enough for both, but the actions of some of their officials sometimes suggests otherwise,” Mr Kausikan said.

He pointed out that Singapore has on occasion been accused by its American friends of being too close to China, and by its Chinese friends for being too close to the US.

In response to such accusations, Mr Kausikan said: “I tell them therefore, we have been doing something right.”

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