VIETNAM, ASEAN, AND THE U.S.-CHINA RIVALRY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC

BY JONGSOO LEE

How do Vietnam and the broader Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) navigate the pressure to choose sides in the U.S.-China rivalry? What are the main challenges for Vietnam’s national security and economy as it seeks rapid growth and development? For a perspective on these matters, Jongsoo Lee interviewed Le Hong Hiep, fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program and the Regional Strategic and Political Studies Program at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.

How would you assess the prospects for ASEAN becoming more like the European Union in developing a common foreign policy? In what areas do ASEAN member states want to achieve deeper integration?

ASEAN member states have little appetite for turning ASEAN into a supra-national body like the EU due to their obsession with national sovereignty. Brexit further reinforces their conviction. Therefore, even as ASEAN integration accelerates with the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015, there are limits to how far ASEAN can go in this regard. So far, economic integration remains its priority, while political and security integration, including the development of a common foreign policy, remains an elusive process. The common goal is to utilize ASEAN-led mechanisms to maintain regional peace and stability, as well as ASEAN Centrality. We should be realistic here because even efforts to forge an intra-ASEAN consensus on certain regional political and security issues have proven futile. However, it’s true that if ASEAN really wants to play a bigger and more substantive role in regional security affairs, having a common foreign policy will be essential for the grouping.

Read the full interview on The Diplomat.

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Jongsoo Lee is a Pacific Council member, Senior Managing Director at Brock Securities, and Center Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He is also Adjunct Fellow at Hawaii-based Pacific Forum. He can be followed on Twitter at @jameslee004.

This article was originally published by The Diplomat.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.