Published on: 2022-11-13 – 16:37
The ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh has just ended with a conference by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The regional bloc’s first physical summit since the pandemic has drawn many foreign leaders in a tense international context. Aside from some iconic collaborative partnerships or the announcement of progress on trade deals, what do you remember from this year’s ASEAN Summit?
With our correspondent in Phnom Penh, Julia Buchez
We will remember the agreement in principle to East Timor’s accession. It is the last Southeast Asian country not to be a member of ASEAN. Eleven years after its candidacy, the country hopes to achieve its full integration during the Indonesian mandate in 2023.
As a prelude to the G20 summit, which kicks off in Bali in two days, the summit reflected key international issues: the North Korean missile fire of course, but also the war in Ukraineas both Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers attended the Phnom Penh summit.
The Burmese junta absent from this summit
Next about Burma. The country chair remained empty throughout the event. Despite the stalemate in the country’s crisis since the military coup, ASEAN reiterated its adherence to the five-point consensus to end the violence. Without the main summits, the bloc could review Burmese participation in the group’s other meetings.
►Also read: Despite deadlock in crisis, ASEAN maintains status quo in Burma
But the summit was marked above all by the presence of many foreign leaders: in confusion we will mention Joe Biden for the United States, Justin Trudeau for Canada, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, as well as South Korean and Japanese leaders or New Zealand.
Asean is thus asserting itself as an exchange forum for the rest of the world with a group of heterogeneous countries that are experiencing renewed economic and geostrategic interest. A renewed interest in a tense global context that has obscured other regional issues or human rights issues in several ASEAN countries.