Since the establishment of relations, the connection and benefit sharing between the US and Southeast Asian countries have been increasingly completed, which has a significant impact on the peace, stability, cooperation and development of the region and the world. The issue of how this new approach to this region is and how the relations between the two sides will be has been much concerned by international opinion.
A pivotal piece
Recent changes in the world have deeply impacted policies of the US on the Asia - Pacific, especially the South East Asia, where the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has an increasingly important role in the strategy of the “Stars and Stripes Flagged country”. This is because of the two main reasons: (1) the South East Asian countries are located in the centre connecting the Indian Ocean with Pacific Ocean, the border area between China and India and the entry to Asia; (2) ASEAN and the mechanisms founded and led by this bloc,such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Minister Meeting (ADMM), etc. have received much concern and trust from other countries, especially the powerful ones. So far, ASEAN has established the dialogue relations with 11 partners, including the US, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Canada, England and the EU. The ARF promoted and led by ASEAN has become an important and large-scaled forum on security, politics and building the strategic belief, with the participation of 27 member countries within and beyond the region; (3) ASEAN has been proving its flexibility and economic potential, despite difficulties and challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. As of 2021 alone, the ASEAN’s economy (overall GDP) reached about USD 3,300 billion, rising as the 5th economy in the world and the 3rd economy in Asia. More and more countries expect to enhance economic cooperation with ASEAN, notably Australia and China. This has proven that the region has become a pivotal and indispensable piece in the Asia-Pacific Strategy of the US.
According to international experts, it was the attention paid by other countries to ASEAN that has shown the great attraction of this important region. As a result, the US could not stand outside the race for influence in the region, especially amid the fierce strategic competition among powerful countries in recent time. This has been proven through the fact that the trade turnover between the US and ASEAN in 2021 was over USD 441 billion. Experts also hold that in the changing trend of the global supply chain, ASEAN countries have emerged as the potential partners of the US in the new network of supply, some of which include Indonesia with its rich potential in natural resources and minerals (nickel, silic) to produce batteries, electronic devices, semi-conducting materials; Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia where common and semi-conducting chips are made; Singapore which is home to 5 high-tech chip factories; Vietnam and Cambodia, which have potentials of hydroelectric, wind, and solar power, etc.
Policies on ASEAN by President Joe Biden administration
During his administration, despite the absence of public policies or declarations related to ASEAN, the documents decoding the US Strategy for the Indo-Pacific by President Donald Trump administration mentioned the ASEAN’s centrality as one of the key points in the regional strategy, and recognised ASEAN as its strategic partner. However, ASEAN has not received the highest priority from this administration because, during his term, President Donald Trump attended the ASEAN Summit once only.
Being different from the predecessor’s administration, policies on ASEAN have been implemented more drastically under Joe Biden administration. In its strategic documents and officials’ statements, Washington has repeatedly affirmed that it treasured the central role of ASEAN, and strongly supported the ASEAN vision on the Indo-Pacific region. In his speech in the 10th ASEAN-United States Summit (2022), President Joe Biden affirmed that ASEAN plays an important part, and is the “heart” of the US’s regional strategy. Particularly, in the new version of the free and open Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS), the US has supported the ASEAN’s central role in leading and solving urgent challenges in the region; and affirmed that it would strengthen the cooperation and widen its high-level participation channels into climate change prevention, energy, traffic and gender equality with ASEAN. Besides, President Joe Biden administration has done many activities to enhance the cooperation with ASEAN; participated actively and comprehensively into mechanisms organised and led by ASEAN, including the appointment of ambassador to ASEAN after 5 years of vacancy (9/2021); reparticipate in the ASEAN Annual Summits (10/2021); the host of the US-ASEAN Special Summit in the White House (5/2022); upgrading the US-ASEAN relations to the Comprehensive Strategic partnership (10/2022), etc. This clearly proves the great attraction of “the ASEAN magnet” to the US.
Together with that, the US has widened the cooperation with ASEAN in the fields of economy, health care, energy, marine security through its intense investment into cooperative activities with ASEAN in order to wipe out the worries about the unrealistic commitments; highly appreciated the active roles of the ASEAN economy in adjusting the regional and global supply chain; proposing and fostering the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) with the participation of most of ASEAN countries (except for Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar). According to the statistics from the Association, the US has been the largest foreign direct investor (FDI) of ASEAN. Also according to several documents supplied by the White House in 2022, Washington has supplied over USD 860 million of aid to ASEAN in the fields of clean energies, health care, education, marine security, human rights, etc. This support is much higher than the commitment of USD 150 million given in the US-ASEAN Special Summit (5/2022).
Beside the participation through the multilateral channels, President Joe Biden administration has attentively consolidated and improved the bilateral relations with ASEAN member countries, especially the allies and partners; in particular, attention is paid to the cooperation in fields of security, military and clean energies. Accordingly, it has invested into 2 coast guard training centres in Balagtas (Philippines) and Batam (Indonesia); appointed the coast guard attaché to the US mission in ASEAN and in some member countries. In the relations with the Philippines, since the danger of the cancelation of the Visiting Forces Agreement under President Donald Trump, the two countries have agreed to allow the US to strength its military presence and approach 09 military bases of the Philippines; the two sides have also promoted the cooperation in research, implementing projects on wind power and nonmilitary nuclear. With regard to Indonesia, President Joe Biden administration has focused on the security and military cooperations through the common military exercises between the navies of the two countries; the weapon purchases and the cooperation in renewable energies, semiconductors and the environmentally friendly traffic infrastructure. With Thailand, clean energy is the focus of cooperation.
Fostering ASEAN to connect with its allies and partners in regions is the new approach in the policies of President Joe Biden administration. In the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Washington has expressed its wish to look for chances of cooperation and connection between the group of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) and ASEAN through the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA); supported the close connection between the South Asian partners and ASEAN. In its joint statement with the allies and partners (the QUAD group, trilateral cooperation of US-Japan-South Korea, etc.), Washington has regularly mentioned that it supported the central role and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). With other different or benefit-related issues, President Joe Biden administration has had more flexible solutions than the previous administration by combining both “hard” and “soft” measures to generally maintain the relations. Noticeably, by the end of 2022, the US “persuaded” the Philippines to cancel the procurement of 16 Mi-17 helicopters from Russia (with the total value of about USD 230 million) by providing the transport helicopters with the same specifications and an aid package valued at USD 100 million. Despite the tension with Cambodia on the military presence of China in Ream Naval Base and issues relating to democracy and human rights, the US has still fostered economic cooperation and aided Cambodia with USD 25 million on food security (8/2022). However, President Joe Biden administration has still expressed its rigid attitude toward several important issues, including the punishment on some Malaysian and Singaporean companies for their relevance to the US sanctions against Iran.
Potential in US-ASEAN relations
According to international researchers, amid the fierce strategic competition between US and China, the complex and unpredictable conflict in Ukraine, the enhancement of the US-ASEAN cooperation has been expected to bring about benefits for the two sides. For the US, this is the penetration into fast-pace developing economies, the creation of influence in the region to gradually contain the role of China over South East Asia and Indo-Pacific region. Conversely, that ASEAN consolidated and widened its relations with the US could help the member countries reach a wide consumption market which is important to their economic and trading activities; at the same time, create optimistic changes in bringing the Association to a favourable position in order to solve relations with countries and issues in the region. Besides, some member countries, such as the Philippines or Singapore have believed that the presence of the US would make big impact to the peace, stability and prosperous development of the region.
Even so, the US-ASEAN relations also face many hard-to-overcome obstacles, including the situation of Myanmar, the approach of the US to issues of democracy, human rights and freedom of religion, etc. Especially, the strategic competition between the US and China would upset ASEAN relations with the US because these countries could not completely end their relations with China in terms of economy, politics and defence and security. Hence, international researchers believe that, in the coming time, the US - ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will be continuously boosted in the fields that the two sides concern, but the speed will partly depend on the relations among powerful countries in the region and the internal issues of the US.
Dr. NGUYEN HONG QUANG and M.A. CHU HOANG ANH, Americas Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs