Insight topics
Chen Chen Lee
Diplomacy Adviser, Asialink
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ASEAN Summit on Myanmar and the 5-Point Consensus
On 24 April, ASEAN held a high-level summit to discuss the mounting crisis in Myanmar. It was the first foreign visit by Myanmar Junta Leader, Min Aung Hlaing, since the coup on 1 February, which has resulted in more than 700 deaths and the detention of more than 3,300 people.
Australia's strategic opportunity
An annual survey of elite opinion in Southeast Asia points to the necessity and opportunity for Australia to lift its engagement with its immediate region. Asialink adviser Chen Chen Lee and Catherine Hooton argue that by working with like-minded powers Australia can expand ASEAN’s geostrategic options and help them avoid a binary choice between China and the US.
ASEAN needs to act on Mekong River
Two events happened in August that went largely unnoticed by most of the mainstream media in Southeast Asia. One was the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders' Meeting between China and the five Mekong members of ASEAN – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The other was the inaugural Mekong-US Partnership Ministerial Meeting between America and the same ASEAN countries. As Asialink Diplomacy Adviser Chen Chen Lee writes, the Mekong deserves timely and decisive attention from ASEAN, lest the region's stability and growth be challenged.