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.