A good time for ASEAN to strengthen its leadership

Bantarto Bandoro, Jakarta

ASEAN will hold its 37th ministerial meeting here on June 28 to Aug. 2. An ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting as well as talks with other partners of ASEAN will also take place in between these dates.

This will be the first formal meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers since the Bali summit in 2003, and is particularly important in light of the task entrusted by the 9th summit to finalize plans of action for the attainment of an ASEAN community by 2020. Not only that, ASEAN is to show to the world its dee+per strategic engagement in the development of a more stable and secure region.

The Jakarta meeting takes place at a time when the region is facing ever more severe political and strategic challenges stemming both from inside and outside the region, and amid rumors about the threat of terrorist attacks at foreign envoys here and certain mining and energy companies.

The six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue taking place in Beijing from June 23 to June 26 has added greater importance of the meeting, the ARF in particular, especially as regards how the ARF will react to the outcome of that meeting and go about reducing political tension on the Korean peninsula.

The ARF meeting is also special in the light of the accession by Pakistan to the forum and the presence of the North Korean foreign minister.

The Jakarta meeting is considered extraordinary, not only because it will see the attendance of senior officials from the stake holders, but also because it has been assigned the task of helping boost stability and security in the region.

It is thus, strategically and politically, a security meeting in the sense that it has the task of providing wider security assurances that the region will be robust enough to withstand pressures on ASEAN as well as its members states.

High profile security issues, such as security in the Strait of Malacca, terrorism, Myanmar and tension on the Korean Peninsula, to mention a few, will definitely be on the agenda of the meeting.

Here we see the widening of the spectrum of ASEAN's responsibilities: to identify new security issues, overcome existing ones and design a reliable regional strategy for overcoming future contentious regional issues.

The region is anxiously waiting to see whether Indonesia, as the chair of ASEAN, can gear up other ASEAN member states to agree upon specific plans of action, particularly as regards the idea of the ASEAN Security Community.

As we have seen, Indonesia has floated proposals for a plan of actions for an ASEAN Security Community, such as regional peacekeeping and an ASEAN human rights commission. Other members are tasked with developing plans of action for an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community, and an ASEAN Economic Community. All are part of ASEAN's strive for full integration.

At the upcoming meeting, ASEAN will need to show firmness as regards its strategic platform, one that provide a stronger basis for ASEAN's future direction and activities.

The strategic objectives of ASEAN -- among other things, dealing with security matters and disputes through a regional framework rather than bilaterally or through international forums -- are among the key objectives that will fulfill the vision of ASEAN.

It is a pity, however, that other members of ASEAN have their own sets of priorities in achieving these objectives.

If ASEAN is to be seen as being firm in its platform, one might suggest that it needs to further map out strategic objectives that would politically support its 2020 vision. One of these objectives is ensuring that ASEAN is continuously and strategically relevant to its members, particularly in the security sense.

Through the diplomatic process, ASEAN needs to sustain the belief among member states that an increase in benefit to one will be a benefit to all. This is one manifestation of security.

It is normal that for ASEAN to look firm about its platform, the members' interests and ASEAN's interests as a regional entity need to be congruent. But in practice, this would be difficult to achieve. In the event of a conflict, turbulence in the region or even responses to fresh proposals, it is likely that the members of ASEAN will continue to tend to put their own interests first.

Indonesia's proposal that regional peacekeeping be made an ASEAN mechanism for solving conflicts was not well received by the other members, a sign that they tend to give more priority to their own interests.

The AMM meting here, therefore, will need to be more assertive and creative in exploring a variety of ways in which ASEAN might produce more practical policies, ones that are not incongruent with the interests of members.

Other strategic objectives ASEAN might consider, in the context of building an ASEAN Community, is ensuring the competence of ASEAN as a kind of driver that would in the end be looked to for the purpose of solving and containing any future conflicts or outbreaks of political turbulence.

Indonesia needs to mobilize more of its diplomatic resources so that there will be a deeper strategic engagement of each of each of the member states of ASEAN as regards the realization of its 2020 vision. Such engagement is not only desirable, but also necessary if Indonesia is to avoid further rifts among ASEAN member states caused by differences in policy priorities.

What Indonesia needs to do more regarding its idea of an ASEAN Security Community is to inculcate the belief that once the member states drive ASEAN as their vehicle for regional security, they should trust ASEAN forever, meaning that they will be committed to working together within a framework of interdependence in order to bring about security and other desirable objectives.

The writer (bandoro@csis.or.id), a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is also a lecturer in the International Relations Post Graduate Studies Program, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia, Jakarta.