By Carl Thayer
Southeast Asia’s annual summit season has just ended. Indonesia hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, while Brunei, as current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), hosted the ASEAN Summit, East Asia Summit and other related ASEAN meetings. Media coverage contrasted President Barack Obama’s “no show” with President Xi Jinping’s successful debut in the region. Xi became the first person to address a joint sitting of Indonesia’s parliament, and also paid a state visit to Malaysia.
Much of the media coverage and commentary by analysts rightly stressed Xi’s major economic initiatives, including the establishment of an Asian infrastructure development bank and a new 100 billion yuan ($US16.3 billion) currency swap agreement between the Chinese and Indonesian central banks.
Little notice was given to Beijing's defense and security agenda, however. For example, in Xi’s address to the Indonesian parliament on October 3, he proposed a Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation between China and ASEAN. According to a commentary by Ruan Zongze, the deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies, in an article published last week, the purpose of the treaty was “to cement peaceful relations with ASEAN countries…and to eliminate any ASEAN countries’ misgivings about China.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat