Читать книгу Регионы в современном мире: глобализация и Азия. Зарубежное регионоведение - Коллектив авторов, Ю. Д. Земенков, Koostaja: Ajakiri New Scientist - Страница 35

Over the past decade, the regional and the global milieu have seen an increased competition between the great powers with troublesome aftereffects on Southeast Asia. This incentivizes the Association and Vietnam as its present chairman, to implement a smart and nuanced policy in order to balance interests of all the parties on the regional chessboard.

For Vietnam, ASEAN is and will possibly remain the key foreign policy direction as the association plays an indispensable role in promoting Vietnam’s interests from the substantial, institutional and reputational perspective. If so, Hanoi will make every effort to strengthen ASEAN solidarity and central role in the Asia-Pacific multilateralism.

So far, Vietnam has chaired ASEAN three times, and each chairmanship fell to the critical period for the history of the association. The 1998 chairmanship was amid ASEAN’s policy to cope with the aftereffects of the Asian financial and economic crisis, while the 2010 and 2020 chairmanships marked ASEAN’s attempts to keep the South China Sea issue and the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemics in a manageable state. Among other tasks, for the association it presupposed strengthening ASEAN’s internal unity and ASEAN’s positions in the Asia-Pacific multilateral dialogue platforms. The extent of Hanoi’s ability to deal with these tasks during its present chairmanship will largely shape the future evolution of the association.