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Calmer waters: From security to the South China Sea, greater China-Asean cooperation is in everyone's best interest
Zha Daojiong says that closer cooperation between China and Asean is good for the region as a whole
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Since the first China-Asean official dialogue in July 1991, when then foreign minister Qian Qichen attended the 24th Asean Post-Ministerial Conference as a consultative partner, the relationship between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has grown into a multilayered web of ties. Those ties cover the entire spectrum of security, political, economic and social affairs. Growth of mutually agreeable ties culminated in the announcement of a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in 2003. On its 10th anniversary, President Xi Jinping championed joint efforts to build a closer China-Asean community of common destiny, charting the course for long-term development of relations.
China supports a more prosperous and stronger Asean, its member states and the grouping's centrality in regional cooperation. The conclusion of Asean community building in 2015 is another milestone for all.
There is no asset in the Asean region that would warrant active conflict between China and the US
The special meeting of China-Asean defence ministers, just concluded in Beijing, was the first of its kind and marked another indicator of China's embrace of the "Asean Way" of security dialogue and cooperation. Given that defence is arguably the last important area for China-Asean interactions to be institutionalised, all 11 parties should take advantage of the momentum and move towards formalising routine defence consultations at the ministerial level.
On security aspects of the relationship, it is important to be mindful of competing assessments and sources of insecurity by various parties. A seemingly neat theory has it that Asean states can expect to be more secure by aligning more closely with the US for military protection and with China for economic well-being. Attractive as that assertion may sound, it is false.
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