The Challenge to ASEAN Centrality Under Indo-Pacific Strategy

Abstract

With the rapid economic development of the western Pacific and Indian Ocean region, especially China and India’s rapid rise, the western Pacific and Indian Ocean are getting important in the position in world politics and world economy. Indo-Pacific strategy mainly proposed and promoted by the United States, Japan, India and Australia, India, is gradually taking shape. The proposal and implementation of the strategic concept of “Indo-pacific”, it is the dividend that some countries pay to share the rapid economic development of the Indo-pacific region,but the main purpose of the strategy is to curb the rapid rise of China. ASEAN, which had played a central role in the Asia-pacific region, could be an important pillar of the Indo-Pacific strategy, but there is a contradiction between the aim of Indo-Pacific strategy to deter China and the purpose and the principles of the ASEAN, the Indo-Pacific group does not see ASEAN as an important pillar. But given the role of ASEAN in Indo-Pacific strategy, Indo-Pacific strategy group has embraced parts of Southeast Asia, considering the ASEAN region as an important part of the strategic vision of India. The Indo-Pacific strategy seeks to contain China beyond the “ASEAN Centrality” regional cooperation and dialogue mechanism: on the one hand, it is bound to aggravate regional tensions and weaken the “ASEAN Centrality” in the regional mechanism-construction, on the other hand, it will lead to differences within ASEAN and increase intra-ASEAN conflict.