Global leaders court ASEAN
Korea should rebalance foreign policies
By Kim Jae-kyoung
.jpg?w=728)
SINGAPORE — On May 26, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited heads of seven Southeast Asian nations, including Laos and Vietnam, to hold a meeting with G7 leaders in Japan. He stressed the need to invest in building infrastructure in the ASEAN region.
On May 23, U.S. President Barak Obama visited Vietnam and announced that the United States would fully lift a decades-long ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam to normalize relations with the former enemy.
On May 19 and 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin held bilateral meetings with leaders of 10 ASEAN member states in Russia, the first ASEAN-Russia summit on Russian soil, since they established bilateral relations two decades ago.
These are a series of developments made by leaders of three world powers just in the last one month.
If you take a look at these series of events separately, it does not mean much. They should be taken as normal diplomatic activities that the leaders conducted to strengthen bilateral ties in the increasingly borderless world.
But if you put things together and think about what’s happening behind the scenes, they suggest a lot. They indicate that leaders of the U.S., Russia, Japan and China are becoming more active in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN.
These moves suggest that they are gearing up to get the upper hand in both the political and economic arena in the 10-member bloc, an indication that the competition in this region will heat up down the road.
In other words, they want to benefit from long-term growth opportunities created by the launch of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) at the end of 2015. With a combined GDP of $2.6 trillion, the ASEAN economy is the seventh largest in the world and its population is the third largest in the world with 622 million people.
Also, they seek to have greater sway over ASEAN nations to use their influence as leverage to deal with various tricky issues in the region, such as conflicts over the South China Sea.
At a news conference in Hanoi alongside Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, U.S. President Obama said that the full removal of an arms embargo was not based on considerations concerning China.
However, China has been alert to U.S. moves.
China Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, said that the U.S. and Vietnam must not spark a “regional tinderbox,” saying, “This, if true, bodes ill for regional peace and stability.”
U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry dismissed such concerns, saying that the lifting of the ban was not about China but about promoting a “rules-based order” in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.
For Russia, Putin is seemingly pursuing a rebalance in diplomatic policies toward Asia by strengthening the relationship with ASEAN after his country’s relations with the West deteriorated due to the Ukraine crisis.
In order to rehabilitate the moribund Russian economy, Putin has sought to diversify his nation’s economic and political relations with ASEAN. He may also consider using relations when negotiating with other countries, including China
Japan’s Prime Minister Abe has continually shown his commitment to the ASEAN market. He has made state visits to all 10 member nations since he took office. The island nation has two clear goals in ASEAN policies.
First, it is seeking to keep ahead of other countries in business opportunities there. Second, it is building strategic relations with ASEAN countries to tip the balance in favor of Japan over China in maritime territorial disputes.
Four global powers — the U.S., China, Japan and Russia — are all looking at ASEAN to strengthen their footholds in the region and create opportunities for the future. Korea is now focusing on the four world powers to maintain the status quo.
Uncertainties over the world’s political and economic landscape are greater than ever. History shows that there is no permanent ally and foe. It is time for Korea to come up with forward-looking strategies and rebalance foreign policies beyond the four superpowers for a better future.