Of the many meetings throughout the ASEAN Summit week, the one that I was most proud of was the ASEAN Joint Foreign and Economic Ministers’ (AMM-AEM) Meeting held on 25 October.
The last time the foreign and economic ministers of ASEAN sat together for a meeting was more than two decades ago.
ASEAN institutions are designed to fall under three pillars: Political-Security, Economic, and Socio-Cultural. I have always thought that the three pillars operate in too much of a silo and that has to change, especially in the new phase of global history which sees the further blurring of the line between security and economy.
Every economic decision comes with security concerns, and every security concern has economic consequences.
Therefore, when Indonesia proposed at the ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Retreat in February to form a Track 1.5 platform to deal with the emerging challenges from the trade policies of the Trump administration, Malaysia responded positively.
The ASEAN Geoeconomics Task Force (AGTF), co-chaired by Indonesia’s Vice Minister of
Trade Ibu Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri and Director General of International Trade Negotiations
at the Ministry of Trade Pak Djatmiko Bris Witjaksono and myself was established in April by the
ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Special Meeting.
The AGTF was also tasked to study the second order effects of “Liberation Day”, such as a race to the bottom following the excess capacity originally destined for the United States market.
The Task Force appointed the former Trade Minister of Indonesia Ibu Mari Pangestu, Bank Negara Malaysia Assistant Governor Fraziali Ismail and former Secretary-General of MITI Tan Sri Rebecca Sta Maria as lead experts.
In the subsequent months, we met many times – virtual and in-person – to find the way forward for ASEAN in this turbulent time.
I am glad that Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim mentioned AGTF’s pioneering work in his speech when opening the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in July, and in his opinion piece for Project Syndicate.
The Experts were also invited to brief the AMM in July, and as a result, the AMM-AEM meeting was scheduled, and the inaugural ASEAN Geoeconomics Report was presented to the ministers for their deliberation as a guiding document.
At the AMM-AEM meeting last Saturday, the consensus was that the foreign and economic ministers should meet regularly, at least once a year, and the mechanism should be institutionalised.
I have further suggested to the meeting that the institutionalisation of AMM-AEM should include
- The regularisation of joint meeting between Senior Officials (from the security pillar, SOMs) and Senior Economic Officials (SEOMs);
- The establishment of a High-Level Task Force for Geoeconomics that includes officials from both the security and economic pillars, and eminent persons from non-governmental backgrounds, to form a Track 1.5 platform to deliberate ideas with security and economic concerns;
- The annual publication of the ASEAN Geoeconomics Report
When we embarked on the AGTF journey half a year ago, I told the Experts, namely Ibu Mari, Fraziali, and Rebecca, that I would like to see the emergence of a credible expert report à la the Darghi Report of the European Union. The Report is not meant to be a policy decision but a mechanism for new ideas to be ventilated and debated publicly.
I am delighted that the inaugural ASEAN Geoeconomics Report will be published in November.