ASEAN: Managing External Political and Security Relations

Summary

The 2013 ASEAN Security Outlook states that ASEAN is facing “increasingly complex geopolitical challenges…” in Southeast Asia. This review examines the interplay of these challenges and how ASEAN and its Member States have dealt with them in order to maintain ASEAN centrality.

ASEAN Chairmanship of Brunei Darussalam

The ASEAN Chairmanship rotates among Member States in English alphabetical order. After Vietnam in 2010, normally it would have been the turn of Brunei Darussalam to chair ASEAN in 2011. Indonesia had asked and Brunei Darussalam as well as the rest in ASEAN agreed to let Indonesia take the turn of Brunei Darussalam in 2011. Indonesia's main reason was that if it were to wait for its normal turn, which would come in 2013 after Cambodia in 2012, it would be saddled with double responsibilities of chairing ASEAN and APEC in the same year in 2013.

Myanmar had also swapped its turn in chairing ASEAN in 2016 with Laos in 2014. Myanmar wanted to secure the opportunity for the current elected government to showcase itself in the international community before its term ends in 2015. Laos had no problem waiting until 2016, and the rest in ASEAN was supportive, especially in the light of the positive political changes in Myanmar under the leadership of President Thein Sein.

Although Brunei Darussalam is the smallest Member State (with only about 400,000 of population), the sultanate has well-trained English-speaking bureaucrats to run the ASEAN Chairmanship efficiently. From the start, Brunei Darussalam kept a low profile as the ASEAN Chairman. Its emphasis was on getting ASEAN back to basics, working hard to implement what Member States had already agreed upon, putting the ASEAN house in order through quiet diplomacy, and avoiding rekindling old problems like those in the South China Sea.

Brunei Darussalam showed some concern about the steadily rising number of ASEAN meetings. ASEAN now has more than thirty ministerial bodies, which are served by over 100 committees of senior officials, task forces, working groups, etc. In 2012 the number of ASEAN meetings at all levels exceeded 1,000 for the first time in the forty-five years’ history of the organization.

One of the first changes introduced by Brunei Darussalam was to forego convening an informal meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers in early 2013.