ASEAN best served by strategic autonomy

In a recent interview with the Financial Times in London during his visit to the United Kingdom, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim raised a good point: that upholding strategic autonomy amid tensions between China and the United States serves the interests of smaller economies best. Even the Philippines, a close ally of the US that has actively thrown itself to the front to provoke China over their South China Sea maritime disputes, cannot deny the rationality of Anwar's remarks. It was after meeting collective resistance from the organization, which is seeking to maintain its centrality in regional affairs, that the former US administration resorted to a divide-and-rule approach, trying to press the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government of the Philippines to drive a wedge between the ASEAN members and China by hyping up their maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Regional countries have long seen through these US tricks that ironically have served to stimulate them to pay more attention to strengthening their solidarity and speak in one voice on the world stage, and spurred them to promote their respective dialogues and negotiations with China to resolve their maritime disputes in a proper way while markedly boosting their pragmatic cooperation and trade with the world's second-largest economy. The document clearly demonstrates ASEAN's determination to stay clear of the US' geopolitical game and focus on promoting regional common development, peace and stability with its neighbors, including China.