Media

Commentary 2016/22, 16 June 2016

The fault lines between ASEAN and China was exposed in the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kunming which drew to an “eventful” conclusion yesterday. Even before the meeting started, ominous signs were looming as stakeholders started asking questions over the rationale for the meeting. Some quarters in ASEAN were uneasy over the possibility that China will use the meeting to paper over heightened concerns and anxieties in the South China Sea (SCS). Nevertheless, the Malaysian proposed meeting was convened in Kunming on 14 June 2016.

In a recent article in Bloomberg (Singapore Urges U.S. Against Tweaking Big Pacific Trade Pact; dated 12 June 2016), there is mention of Singapore’s role as an interlocutor for the US to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in its current form. Ratifying the agreement becomes a pertinent issue as none of the US Presidential candidates – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – are supporting the TPP. Worse, they are sending signals of lack of support for the trade deal. Domestic interest groups, especially from the auto sector and labour activists, have expressed their unhappiness over the trade pact.

The Myanmar Forum 2016 in Singapore on 20 May 2016, convened by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and University of Michigan’s Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, highlighted important issues for those following developments in Myanmar.  Changes in Myanmar under the “civilianised” administration of the Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) now continue under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which received a resounding mandate in the November 2015 elections. Hope and expectations are driving the current change trajectory.  The Forum examined the imperatives for the NLD government’s attention in the initial months of the administration, the interests that drive the need to transform and the individuals and institutions that influence the process.