Spirit of cooperation needed as South-east Asia gears up for trio of major summits

IN A matter of weeks, the eyes and ears of the world will be trained on South-east Asia as world leaders, senior government officials, policymakers and business leaders will be in the region in November for a trio of in-person international summits that will take place over a 10-day period.

First up is the Asean Summit that will be hosted by Cambodia on Nov 10-13, with the event also attended by representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ dialogue partners including China, South Korea, Japan and the UK. This will be followed by the G20 Summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, on Nov 15-16. The third big pow-wow is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ meeting in Bangkok on Nov 18-19.

While these high-level events typically have their own agenda and themes, it is impossible to ignore the sheer number of overlapping concerns and issues on the table that need urgent attention. There is the ongoing geopolitical uncertainty between the US and China, the impact of the Russia-led war in Ukraine, rising tensions over Taiwan, violence in Myanmar, fears of a recession amid soaring inflation, the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, disruptions to global supply chains, and much more.

Many of these summits have faced criticism in the past for being “talk shops” that do not deliver many real and tangible outcomes, so there is always that pressure on the host nations – this year, it is the Asean chair Cambodia, the G20 chair Indonesia and the Apec chair Thailand – to make the most of the meetings and discussions, as well as the precious face-time between the world leaders in attendance.

US President Joe Biden has already confirmed he will be at the Bali gathering, with Vice-President Kamala Harris leading the US delegation at Apec in the Thai capital. Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be at the G20 meet as well, with Indonesia also inviting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend, setting the stage for one of the most anticipated geopolitical meetings this year. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is also expected to attend all 3 summits.

There is still time for the summit hosts to meet and figure out the most effective way of ensuring their events can have some degree of coordination. The trio issued an unprecedented joint statement in May, noting that their respective meetings in November “share commonalities that provide a unique opportunity for all participating countries (and) economies to jointly advance the collective global and regional agenda and efforts to bring peace, prosperity, and sustainable and inclusive development to all our peoples”.

The actions on the ground must speak louder than these big words. Beyond the pleasantries, handshakes, welcome dinners and smiles at the group photo-taking sessions, the host nations have a collective responsibility to remind their guests of the pressing issues on the table and the immediate challenges they need to address. The world’s attention will be trained on South-east Asia over those 10 days in November, and the hope is that these summits will, at the very least, demonstrate strong leadership and wisdom to tackle the problems at hand.