Stronger ASEAN offers example to East Asia

Source:Global Times Published: 2015-10-12 22:48:01

Kim Young-sun



Editor's Note:

The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will embrace an Economic Community by the end of this year as part of its integration process. What will the community mean to ASEAN integration? Where is ASEAN integration heading? On the sidelines of the 2nd Trilateral People-to-People Exchange Forum held in Changchun, Jilin Province, Global Times (GT) reporter Sun Xiaobo talked with Kim Young-sun (Kim), secretary general of the ASEAN-Korea Centre, over these issues.

GT: The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be established by the end of this year. What do you think is the AEC's significance for the ASEAN integration?

Kim:
ASEAN is characterized by religious, linguistic, ethnic, cultural and social diversity. By getting over the diversity and differences, they will finally form one community. It will have a great impact on ASEAN as well as non-ASEAN member countries.

ASEAN consists of three pillars, the economic community, the political social community and the social cultural community. The emergence of the AEC is not the final destination of community building but an ongoing process because strictly speaking, it is not easy to realize the completion of one community due to many difficult stumbling blocks. They have so many things to resolve.

But we have to recognize and highly praise efforts to realize the "One Community" through "One Vision, One Identity."

Even though the pace of realizing the community is slow, the direction toward establishing one community is very clear, based on the consensus of 10 different countries.

GT: Some people see the completion of ASEAN integration as a remote idea as the bloc is split and has internal barriers. What's your take on this? Are you optimistic about the future of ASEAN integration?

Kim:
It's hard to judge the current status of ASEAN's efforts toward the community building-process.

This is like a half-full glass of wine and it depends on the angle from which you see to judge whether the glass is half empty or the other way around.

Despite many stumbling blocks and difficulties to get over, ASEAN member countries continue to sit together and have discussions, trying their best to narrow the differences. These efforts mean a lot.

Take China-South Korea-Japan relations. While it is difficult to bring their three leaders together, leaders of ASEAN members often gather for more than 1,500 rounds of meetings a year at different levels. That is a valuable lesson we have to draw on in furthering East Asian cooperation.

GT: Will China-South Korea-Japan cooperation help with ASEAN integration? In what way?

Kim:
The two can affect each other. The process of ASEAN Community Building can contribute to the improvement of the trilateral relations because the three countries are closely related to ASEAN countries and ASEAN as a whole, so the advancement of ASEAN Community Building will affect positively on the three's relations.

On the other hand, better relations among China, South Korea and Japan will bring positive effects on ASEAN.

There is one important concept - connectivity. At the moment, each country tends to develop their own national projects, but with the integration of a certain region or a community, it connects separate states together and forms an expanded community.

For example, connecting the railroad from Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province to Southeast Asian countries contributes not only to China but also Southeast Asia, thereby contributing to more balanced development of the economy of the entire area.

In this sense, China's role and contribution is very important, so there have been high expectations for the effects of the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

But in this process, China should not promote just its own interests. As a regional leader, the Chinese government has to bear in mind the whole picture of cooperation.

Another important concept is narrowing the development gap.

With its rapid growth, China needs to look at those underprivileged countries like Cambodia and Laos. China's efforts to assist them are very important.

That will eventually help the advanced countries like China, Japan, South Korea and the US to realize a more balanced and harmonious development.

GT: The ASEAN plus Three pattern has worked out well and is seeking to take in more partners. What do you think of this expansion tendency?

Kim:
When we talk about ASEAN plus One, Three or Six, it means regional cooperation, a kind of regionalism.

But with the progress of globalization, regionalism should be opened. In this sense, I support expanding regional cooperation.

ASEAN was a little hesitant about the expanded ASEAN plus X mechanism for fear that they might lose the centrality of ASEAN. But look at the reality. ASEAN has benefited a lot from the expanded regionalism.



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