All change at ASEAN
Hopes for calmer times under this year’s new management
EVEN the most ardent supporters of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) concede that last year was a pretty disastrous one for the ten-country grouping. Replacing the region’s usual mild-mannered consensus was an unprecedented eruption of rowing and bickering, all on very public and humiliating display at its summit meetings.
The root of it all was the dispute over China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Cambodia, closest to China in the grouping and the ASEAN chairman in 2012, tried to press its ally’s claims. This provoked a heated reaction from some of ASEAN’s own members, notably Vietnam and the Philippines, with claims of their own. For several weeks last year the Philippine navy was involved in a tense stand-off with Chinese ships near the disputed Scarborough shoal.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "All change at ASEAN"
Asia February 9th 2013
From the February 9th 2013 edition
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