Laos took over the presidency of ASEAN in January and already faces its first major test. How will it approach the issues — tensions in the South China Sea, escalating problems in Myanmar, and the growing rivalry in the Pacific between the United States and China — that its predecessor, Indonesia, was unable to fully … Read more
Myanmar’s military junta has sent a senior official to a major meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the first time since late 2021. According to reporters, Marlar Than Htaik, the permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is attending this week’s ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Laos. The two-day informal … Read more
Laos, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has appointed a veteran diplomat as its special envoy to Myanmar ahead of the bloc’s foreign ministerial retreat in Luang Prabang later this month. Citing an “informed diplomatic source,” Thai PBS reported on Sunday that Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith had appointed Alounkeo Kittikhoun, … Read more
There was a palpable sense of apprehension among onlookers as Indonesia passed the gavel of the ASEAN chairmanship to Laos at its summit in September. Diplomats and observers alike worry that Laos, a diminutive communist state currently facing debilitating macroeconomic instability, may not be able to smoothly navigate the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) … Read more
Advertisement Usually, the most exciting moments of the annual summits of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are when something doesn’t happen. It has lived long in the memory of political commentators that the regional bloc failed to deliver a joint, post-summit statement in 2012 when Cambodia, as ASEAN chair that year, seemingly put … Read more
Advertisement Indonesia assumed the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the beginning of January and quickly implemented a diplomatic change in the regional bloc’s approach to the ongoing conflict in Myanmar. This change is encapsulated by what Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi recently called “quiet diplomacy,” which involves engagements with the … Read more