Kehadiran Kerjasama Keamanan Trilateral AUKUS bagi Asia Tenggara: Memaknai Perbedaan Sikap Negara Anggota dan Relevansi ASEAN

Abstract

The phenomenon of the AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States Partnership) trilateral security pact has caused a polemic within ASEAN. Australia's involvement in AUKUS gives Australia the right to have eight nuclear-powered submarines, reaping the pros and cons of ASEAN countries. Vietnam and the Philippines tend to support, while Indonesia-Malaysia oppose Australia's decision. Ideally, ASEAN, which has declared itself a nuclear-free zone in the SEANWFZ (Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone), does not support Australia's decision. This paper aims to analyze the effect of different responses from ASEAN countries to ASEAN centrality as regionalism in Southeast Asia. Based on the analysis conducted with the realism perspective, it was found that the differences in the responses of ASEAN countries did not affect the centrality of ASEAN. This is based on two things, firstly the response of countries that support Australia's policy is a spontaneous response to the security situation of countries involved in the South Tiongkok Sea conflict, the two ASEANs are still relevant as a foothold for the foreign policy of ASEAN member countries, especially on the policy of the Nuclear Free Zone. For this reason, ASEAN is still relevant in the security constellation in the region.