Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have touched down in Vientiane, Laos to take part in high-level meetings of ASEAN – the political and economic union and security forum of 10 Southeast Asian nations.
ASEAN’s economic, political, and diplomatic clout has grown dramatically in the 57 years since its founding in August 1967.
Starting out as just another Cold War-era US-backed bloc against Soviet and Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, ASEAN kicked off a dramatic transformation in the 1990s, when Russia and China started a dialogue with the group, while Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia – erstwhile adversaries of members Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Brunei – joined the association.
ASEAN's importance in regional and world affairs stems from its strategic location in southern Asia, as well as the growing combined economic and diplomatic clout of its members.
ASEAN boasts a combined PPP GDP of over $10 trillion. Together, member countries add up to the fifth-largest economy in the world. The bloc accounts for a land area of 4.5 million square kilometers (about half the total area of China or the US), and has a population of over 600 million people.
ASEAN also enjoys impressive (and growing) geopolitical clout, as evidenced by the issues being addressed at Friday and Saturday’s top-level meetings, from tensions in the South China Sea to the security situation in Myanmar.
Russia became an ASEAN dialogue partner in 1996, and signed a progressive and comprehensive partnership with the bloc in 2005, with its terms including efforts to build “an international system that is fair, balanced and just.”
Economic cooperation ranges from energy, finance and agriculture to science, tech, and tourism. Bloc members undoubtedly appreciate Moscow’s historical record of interaction with the region, including economic and military assistance against US and European imperialism, and no record of colonialism.
China has taken its own major steps to cement its reputation as a friend to ASEAN in recent decades, signing a strategic partnership with the bloc in 2003. ASEAN has been China’s largest trading partner since 2020, and all its members have signed on to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
ASEAN’s role in ensuring regional security has grown in recent years, with the bloc successfully mediating a major Thai-Cambodian border dispute in 2011.
ASEAN and China signed a landmark Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in 2002, based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. However, negotiations have slowed to a crawl amid open US attempts to sabotage talks and lure individual ASEAN members into bilateral security pacts.
Over the course of the latest foreign ministers' summit, Sergey Lavrov is expected to outline Russia’s assessment of the security situation in Southeast Asia, particularly amid the US and its allies' growing efforts to militarize the region.
Lavrov will also bring up President Putin’s proposal of an indivisible Eurasian security architecture. Russia and China's diplomatic efforts vis-a-vis ASEAN are crucial, as without them, the bloc may have a hard time resisting Washington’s dreams of an "Asian NATO."
The US Army's Pacific command announced in April that the military was on track to deploying new medium-range ground-based missile capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the current year.
Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Jose Tavares told Sputnik in June that Jakarta doesn't think there is "anyone in our region" that "would appreciate if other countries deployed armament in our region."