The ASEAN States will not take sides as US-China competition intensifies in the region, opting instead to engage the two powers based on their own needs, according to diplomatic observers.

The assessment follows Washington’s decision to upgrade relations with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and name the White House National Security Council’s chief of staff as the new envoy to the region, a position vacant since 2017.

“As we look around the world – all the challenges we’re facing – the Asean-US partnership is critical, I think, to meeting the moment we find ourselves in history right now,” US President Joe Biden said on Friday as he hosted Asean leaders in Washington.

Biden said US relations with ASEAN were entering a “new era”, and cooperation would be expanded on a range of fronts, from the digital economy to security in the South China Sea.

Washington’s renewed interest in Southeast Asia comes after years of engagement by Beijing via trade, infrastructure projects, and pandemic control measures.

Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said it was too simplistic to say Asian countries were caught between China and the US.

“The US has given them choices, and they’re not exclusive ones,” Thompson said of the 10 Asean countries.
“And I think in many cases, China would certainly say that they’re doing the same thing: they’re not forcing Asian countries to choose sides.”
He said Asean states had been extracting benefits from their various ties, including those with China and the US, and the “most important variable in their foreign policy is sovereignty”.