The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will remain strong despite the emergence of forces in the region that can potentially weaken the unity of the bloc, a Chinese diplomat said in an Oct 24 forum.

Xu Bu, former Chinese ambassador to ASEAN and member of the High-Level Board on Effective Multilateralism of Secretary General of the United Nations, said certain countries were seen taking a lot of actions and policies to set up many hardware and minilateral institutions.

“These minilateral institutions, in my view, are weakening ASEAN centrality,” Xu said in a briefing held at the official residence of Hou Yanqi, current Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, in Jakarta.

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Xu made the remarks at the China-ASEAN Media and Think Tank Salon. He said ASEAN centrality is the key to the success of ASEAN cooperation.

ASEAN centrality is a key element in regional security and Asia’s multilateral cooperation, ensuring that the interests of major powers won’t dictate the future of the association and keep Southeast Asia the center of gravity.

Xu, former president of the China Institute of International Studies, didn’t mention the names of the parties whose actions are threatening ASEAN’s unity and cooperation.

In his presentation Xu noted a number of key realities like the significant increase in economic cooperation between ASEAN and China, China leading in the field of green economy and green energy that have transformed into electric car production in a remarkable way, the many rounds of negotiations and discussions having been held between China and ASEAN, and the concerns expressed to him by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

“China has been the leading country to promote economic cooperation … nice to say, countries in the region are really focusing on economic development, trade expansion, and more people to people exchange,” Xu said.  

In 2023, the bilateral trade between China and ASEAN reached more than $900 billion, and over the past ten months, the growth rate of trade between the two sides has been around 10 percent, Xu said.

Xu cited his meeting with Guterres in July 2023 in which the UN Secretary General said he was very sad because “the world is getting more divided instead of being more united while what we need is really a more united world”.  

Xu said Asia-Pacific countries have been enjoying tremendous economic development and trade cooperation, and that “we need to stick to our way of development”.

In addition to further deepening ASEAN-China trade and economic cooperation 2022-26 and enhancing the level of ASEAN-China Economic Integration, the ASEAN-China Summit in Laos this month reiterated their commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.

Ambassador Hou stressed the need for ASEAN and China to tap into the advantage of the two “super-size” markets and explore more ways and means to connect and share their market to build stronger and more sustainable driving forces for development. She said both sides have agreed to strengthen people-to-people exchanges.

In the ASEAN-China Summit in Laos, leaders of the two sides agreed to push forward cooperation in a number of fields like education, public health, youth, tourism and culture.

China offered to double the number of ASEAN-China Young Leaders Scholarship in the next five years and, together with ASEAN, explore measures and policies to increase tourism flows to pre-pandemic levels.

Hou cited Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s remarks in the Laos Summit that ASEAN and China should stick to their five principles of coexistence, true multilateralism and work towards a more just and equitable international order.

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“China remains committed to supporting ASEAN centrality and unity and strengthening dialog and cooperation,” she said.

M. Habib Abiyan Dzakwan, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said the relationship between China and the United States is influential to economic development of ASEAN member countries.

The Southeast Asian region has great hope that China and the United States will remain wise in managing disputes and get their partnership back to its productive phase for the sake of development in the region,” Habib said on the sidelines of the forum.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily. 

Prime Sarmiento in Hong Kong contributed to this story.