ASEAN Creating Largest Free Trade Area, Developing Indo-Pacific Cooperation

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue playing a leading role in creating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade area, and in developing cooperation between the countries of the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions, the chairman of the 10-nation regional bloc said in a final statement, summarizing the outcome of the 34th ASEAN Summit

BANGKOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2019) The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue playing a leading role in creating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade area, and in developing cooperation between the countries of the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions, the chairman of the 10-nation regional bloc said in a final statement, summarizing the outcome of the 34th ASEAN Summit.

The two-day annual ASEAN summit, which was attended by heads of state and government, and foreign and economy ministers, ended on Sunday in Thailand, which holds this year's chairmanship of the organization.

"We reiterated our strong commitment to concluding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations within 2019 to reinvigorate international trade and to maintain ASEAN credibility and centrality. We urged the RCEP Ministers and officials to redouble their efforts to reach this target, guided by the RCEP Work Plan 2019 which was endorsed by the Ministers at the intersessional meeting in Siem Reap in March 2019. We also called for relevant ASEAN partners to prioritise the RCEP negotiations and to work with ASEAN to conclude the RCEP negotiations within this year," Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cho said at a final press conference.

He also added that the summit participants welcomed the Thai initiative to strengthen ASEAN's leading role in managing relations with non-regional partners.

"We reaffirmed ASEAN centrality, inclusiveness, complementarities, a rules-based order anchored upon international law, and commitment to advancing economic engagement in the region as the main principles of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. In this regard, ASEAN-led mechanisms can serve as platforms for dialogue and implementation of Indo-Pacific cooperation," he concluded.

According to Chan-o-cha, ASEAN is confident that cooperation within the Indo-Pacific region should involve all parties in the process, in which ASEAN should play a central part; complement existing cooperation structures at the regional and sub-regional levels; and generate the necessary resources to achieve prosperity of the region's populations.

The concept of the Indo-Pacific region was first introduced into the global political vocabulary by US President Donald Trump as an alternative to the Asia-Pacific concept.

According to many experts, the Indo-Pacific concept emphasized the role of India and other countries of the Indian subcontinent in international and Asian affairs as a counterweight to China's role.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Summit, Chan-o-cha stressed that in the organization's 52 years of existence, many of the ideas that the group was founded on had been implemented.

"Fifty-two years ago, the Foreign Ministers of five Southeast Asian countries signed the Bangkok Declaration at Saranrom Palace, giving birth to ASEAN. At that time, few could have imagined, or dared to dream, that the small Association of five nations would eventually become a tight-knit Community of ten. But because from one generation to the next we dared to dream, we built a united Community of peace and security, a rules-based Community, and now the 6th largest economy in the world," the prime minister said in his opening remarks.

The ASEAN chairman's final statement, which was adopted at the summit and released on Sunday evening, included 14 pages and 57 paragraphs.

A significant portion of the document was devoted to the main goals and objectives of the association in the short term, including the task of creating the RCEP.

The statement also outlined the goal of adopting a single draft of "an effective and substantive" Code of Conduct in the South China Sea during the current year. The document is intended to form a mechanism guaranteeing a peaceful settlement of differences and conflicts between the countries involved in territorial disputes over the islands and resources in the region, primarily between China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The statement also touched upon the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state, from where more than 900,000 people have fled to refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. ASEAN commended Myanmar's efforts to resolve the crisis as well as the country's cooperation with ASEAN expert groups to facilitate the repatriation of Rakhine residents, the document added.

In addition, much of the final statement concerned the current state of intraregional integration and cooperation in all spheres of life, as well as their future prospects. The statement, in particular, focused on such issues as standardized customs and labor legislation, and the need to strengthen cooperation in fighting transnational crime and pollution of the marine environment.

The development of new mechanisms for peacefully resolving conflicts and quickly responding to natural disasters as part of a common response program "One ASEAN One Response," was also mentioned.

2034 FIFA WORLD CUP, SUMMIT THEME

Each ASEAN summit has its own theme, which this year was "Advancing Partnership for Sustainability." Based on this theme, the final statement of the summit provided assessments and outlined the prospects of all the areas of the association's activities, including in the field of culture. ASEAN's transformation into a single tourism destination is one of the topics on the group's cultural agenda.

In order to expand partnerships in this field, the association decided to submit a bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup in ASEAN member states.

According to the statement, securing unified sustainable development for its member states is one of the pillars of ASEAN, with the principle of mutual assistance being entrenched in the association's activities. Countries with higher rates and levels of development are obligated to help countries with lower rates, the statement stressed.

Such issues as the adoption of the scientific and technological revolution standards, development and application of digital technologies, smooth transition to the digital economy, creation of "smart cities," and involvement of non-regional dialogue partners in addressing these issues were also mentioned as the group's priorities in the short term.

The priorities listed in the statement will be further elaborated on during the next annual ASEAN Week, which will be held in the Thai capital of Bangkok in November. The event is a series of summits at the level of ministers, and heads of state and government. The event also includes larger meetings that are attended by the ministers and heads of state and government of ASEAN dialogue partner countries, including Russia.