00:00As US-China tensions escalate, ASEAN finds itself increasingly caught between the world's two largest economies.
00:09Dennis Hu of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy warns that ASEAN's ability to remain neutral is shrinking fast,
00:16as China's economic influence continues to grow and the US adopts a more protectionist stance.
00:22With the US retreating from global trade and undermining institutions like the World Trade Organization and the UN,
00:29Hu argues that without stronger internal cohesion, ASEAN risks being shaped more by external powers than by its own priorities.
00:37Economist Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, said ASEAN should avoid taking sides and instead advocate for cooperation among all major powers.
00:48Meanwhile, Trisha Yeo of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia, suggests that ASEAN must rethink its relationships with both the US and China
00:57while expanding ties with other regions such as the EU, Africa and Latin America.
01:02In response to these shifting dynamics, ASEAN is trying to avoid being boxed in.
01:07A recent example is the bloc's first ASEAN-Golf Cooperation Council-China summit, signalling its intention to avoid dependence on any single power.
01:16However, this strategy of non-alignment is not new.
01:20The Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, formalized in 1971, was ASEAN's commitment to remain free from external interference during the Cold War.
01:29Hu adds that if ASEAN can achieve deeper integration, it has the potential to become a formidable economic force,
01:36potentially growing into a US$4 trillion regional economy by 2030, according to some estimates.
01:43Atosh Abused, FMT.
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