ASEAN is a regional intergovernmental organization founded in 1967 to promote political and economic cooperation among its member states. The association aims to accelerate economic growth, foster social progress and ensure regional stability. ASEAN comprises 10 Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. The organization facilitates its member countries to collaborate on issues ranging from trade and tourism to defence and diplomacy and speak with a unified voice on the international stage.
Founded on cooperation, amity and non-interference principles, ASEAN has evolved into a dynamic and integrated economic community advancing shared interests of regional peace and development. ASEAN has not only effectively established, secured and maintained peace and security in the region, but it has also raised the living standards of its 661 million people and increased the combined GDP of the regional states to over US$ 3.3 trillion. ASEAN is now the fifth-largest economic power in the world.
As reflected in its Foreign Office website, Pakistan has been the Sectoral Dialogue Partner of the ASEAN since 1993, a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) since 2004 and it has also acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South East Asia in 2004. As ISSI Islamabad’s Guest Articles publication highlighted, Pakistan’s association with ASEAN was institutionalized by establishing the ASEAN-Pakistan Joint Sectoral Cooperation Committee (APJSCC).
During the fifth meeting of the APJSCC held in Jakarta on May 31, 2011, both sides identified several future projects, including promoting regional connectivity, inter-civilization dialogue and maritime security cooperation, in addition to the existing areas of collaboration in peace and security, counter-terrorism, piracy at sea, etc. In March 2019, the two sides also agreed to cooperate in economic development, food and agriculture, science and technology, information and communication technology, tourism, disaster management, culture, human resource development, connectivity, narrowing the development gap and initiatives for ASEAN integration.
But in the broader perspective, as also figured out in IPRI, Islamabad’s Policy Brief on Southeast Asia of February 2022 by Amna Ejaz Rafi, Pakistan has not yet made significant progress in its relations with the ASEAN, especially in the economic/trade relations. The Pakistan-ASEAN bilateral trade stands at US$ 6.3 billion (in comparison the India-ASEAN trade is US$ 200 billion). The Pakistan-ASEAN joint Free Trade Agreement (FTA) feasibility study was initiated in 2009 and since long no further progress has been made in this area.
Conversely, over time, India has made a much deeper ingress in developing political, economic and strategic relations with the ASEAN and its member countries. India became a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN in 1996. Its trade volume with ASEAN countries is 70 billion USD annually. It sits in the ASEAN summit meetings. Its trade and security ties with ASEAN member countries are also strong. Singapore is a major source of foreign direct investment in India. Indonesia meets the 60 percent coal import requirement of India.
Apart from economic and trade relations, India has also developed strong cooperation with the ASEAN member countries in defence and security fields. It is part of well well-established ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting plus a forum of ten ASEAN and eight non-ASEAN countries. India funds the Tripartite Technical Expert Group (TTEG); the group that administers the Strait of Malacca, as its 55 percent trade and its oil imports from Russia’s Sakhalin oil fields pass through it. India is also trying to become a part of the security architecture of the region.
Given the above-stated discussion, it is of economic and strategic significance for Pakistan to develop strong institutional relations with the ASEAN and its member countries. The current strategic situation of the ASEAN region is such that it is not very difficult for Pakistan to advance its relations with the ASEAN with immediate objectives of becoming a full dialogue partner (FDP) of the ASEAN and signing a free trade agreement with the ASEAN to draw economic and trade-related benefits. Pakistan should also advance its diplomatic, security and defence relations with the ASEAN countries to firm up its diplomatic support on the Kashmir dispute.
Due to its close relations with the ASEAN and its member countries, India opposes Pakistan becoming a full dialogue partner. On its behest, Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam oppose Pakistan becoming the FDP of the ASEAN. To remove this opposition, Pakistan should focus on developing closer relations with these countries. Also, Pakistan should exploit the value of the CPEC to convince the ASEAN member countries especially, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, who are industrially well advanced, to invest in the CPEC-related Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Pakistan and export their manufactured goods to western China, Central Asia and Russia from here.
As recently emphasized by Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, in line with its ‘Vision East Asia’ policy, Pakistan attaches high priority to further strengthening its multi-dimensional relations with ASEAN, including through enhanced connectivity and people-to-people contacts. Given the role of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in this context, advancing Pakistan’s relations with the ASEAN as a whole and with its member countries is now also important. Initiated in 2013, CPEC is a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, connecting Gwadar port in southwestern Pakistan with Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and focusing on energy, transport and industrial collaboration.
—The writer is also a former Research Fellow of IPRI and Senior Research Fellow of SVI Islamabad.
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views expressed are writer’s own.
