World powers are courting Asean. Can the region capitalise on that?

ASEAN rarely takes centre stage in global diplomacy.

However, all eyes will be on the Philippines from Tuesday (Jul 21) to Friday, when it hosts the Asean Foreign Ministerial Meetings.

Non-member dialogue partners include the US, China, India and Russia, highlighting the growing economic and political appeal of the South-east Asian bloc.  

Discussions at the meetings will include how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s incoming Section 301 tariffs, and charting the bloc’s road map to try to secure peace in junta-ruled Myanmar.

On the sidelines, foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – a grouping comprising of the US, Japan, Australia and India – will convene to consider Asia-Pacific’s security.

The global courting of Asean was not always obvious. At 2017’s East Asia Summit – the region’s premier strategic dialogue – Trump decided to cancel his attendance, despite it being hosted by the Philippines, a long-standing US ally. 

This, along with his skipping of Asean summits in the later years of his first presidency from 2018 to 2020, fuelled perceptions of US disinterest in the region.

His actions provided what his critics contended was a window of opportunity for China, the bloc’s largest trading partner, to deepen its engagement there.

Evidence of a change in attitude towards Asean in the post-pandemic period includes Trump’s attendance at 2025’s Asean and East Asia summits in Malaysia, which also saw important attendees such as Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Major figures of global diplomacy will likewise be turning up at this year’s events in Manila. They include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The events start with the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which will be followed by post-ministerial conferences as well as meetings with Asean partners, such as China, Japan and South Korea.

Friday’s commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-east Asia will close the summit. 

Asean’s collective influence on global stage

While Asean comprises disparate nations, the group is increasingly recognising its collective influence on the global stage – and other countries are also taking notice of it.

Asean is a strategically located region with a fast-growing gross domestic product, at purchasing power parity, of more than US$13 trillion in 2025.

Its economy is fuelled by a population of nearly 700 million that covers an area of around 4.5 million square kilometres. 

With the US stepping up its interest there, other powers are doubling down on their own engagement, as demonstrated by the number of nations in attendance at this year’s meetings in Manila.

The Asean Regional Forum, which serves as a platform for dialogue and cooperation on security matters, will see participation from no fewer than 27 countries, including the 11 Asean member states. 

While China is often singled out for its high engagement with the region, others – including India and Russia – are ramping up their diplomacy too. Modi, for instance, visited Indonesia in early July, and reaffirmed New Delhi’s interest in the region in 2022 during the 30th anniversary of the Asean-India Dialogue Relations.

Bilateral ties between Asean and India have been raised to a comprehensive strategic partnership, with economic momentum generated by the Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement, which came into effect in 2010. 

Russia is also eyeing ties with the region. In June, President Vladimir Putin hosted a summit with Asean leaders in Kazan, Russia, to try to expand Moscow’s strategic partnership with the region.

The event marked the 35th anniversary of Russia-Asean ties, with Putin saying that the summit will create “new opportunities for expanding mutually beneficial trade, investment and industrial cooperation”.

In the face of this diplomatic love-bombing by wide-ranging powers, leaders such as Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim are urging regional unity to maximise their leverage.

At last year’s Asean Summit, Anwar criticised Trump’s initial tariffs, saying that “our cohesion must not end at declarations” and advocating for an increase in intra-Asean trade and investment in regional integration.

Unity a work in progress

Yet forging solidarity will not always be easy, given the differing interests of Asean states.

Some members, including the Philippines, are more aligned with the US than others. For example, on Jul 12, Manila joined Washington and 12 other countries to issue a joint statement marking the 10th anniversary of the arbitral tribunal ruling that rejects the basis of Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea.

This statement has been condemned as an “act of vilification” by China – which complicates Asean regional unity, given Beijing’s extensive economic and political engagement with a significant number of Asean states, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Perhaps the crucial test of Asean unity this week will not lie with external powers, but with an intra-bloc issue: Myanmar.

Asean foreign ministers will discuss next steps for the Five-Point Consensus, the bloc’s road map to bring peace to the country.

However, talks will take place amid few signs of progress in recent years, raising concern that the bloc may be legitimising a regime still in conflict with its own population.

That said, at this week’s summit, the bloc’s leaders will seek to present a unified front to gain leverage in a world that, seeking global leadership, is increasingly turning to Asean.

The writer is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics