Регионы в современном мире: глобализация и Азия. Зарубежное регионоведение - стр. 45
The authors argue that owing to increased competition between the great powers with potentially disturbing implications for Southeast Asia, the on-going Vietnam’s chairmanship becomes a crucial point in ASEAN’s history. Grasping the challenges, the association has to deal with, as the present ASEAN chairman Vietnam offers its ASEAN partners, as well the external powers, an agenda of cooperation with a clear consolidating component.
The novelty of the study stems from a cutting-edge research of Vietnam’s likely policy directions as the present ASEAN chairman, which is based on an analytical interlink between the changes of the international milieu in Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2020, ASEAN’s remedial measures and their Vietnam perspective. In line with this analytical focus, a deep and nuanced assessment of the SRV’s priorities and policy directions as the ASEAN’s 2020 chairmanship is made. Findings on this set of issues add the practical relevance of the study and make it academically unique.
Keywords: Vietnam, ASEAN, South East Asia, Asia Pacific, Indo-Pacific, South China Sea, security, cooperation.
Introduction
The effective chairmanship in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is considered by the leadership of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) as one of the main foreign policy tasks for 2020. The midterm review of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the 25th anniversary of Vietnam’s accession to the Association add urgency to this priority. The reputation aspect also matters – the election of Hanoi to the post of the nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021 and the SRV’s chairmanship in ASEAN are convincing indicators of an increased role of the state on the regional and the global arena. To examine the ASEAN direction of Vietnam’s policy between the previous (in 2010) and the on-going SRV’s chairmanship in ASEAN becomes a timely and relevant exercise.
The chapter starts from a review of international context in Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2020. Then it turns to examining Vietnam’s contribution to ASEAN’s policy to cope with the emerging challenges. The priorities of Vietnam’s on-going ASEAN chairmanship are considered through the prism of these developments. The conclusion summarizes the main findings of the study.
A Decade of Changes
Between two Vietnam’s chairmanships, Southeast Asia has seen profound international changes. In 2010, the region and the world had barely recovered from the global financial crisis. ASEAN’s policy demonstrated that in a critical situation, the ten states prefer to act separately rather than collectively