By Prashanth Parameswaran
The country will be leading the bloc during a pivotal year. Can it deliver on its promises?
On November 13, at the close of the 25th ASEAN Summit in Naypyidaw, Myanmar president Thein Sein handed the ceremonial chairman’s gavel to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, marking the official handover of the annual rotating ASEAN chair from Myanmar to Malaysia for 2015. As one of the four original founding members of ASEAN, Malaysia will be tasked with leading the organization in a year filled with important developments in the areas of community-building, economic integration, and regional architecture.
Regional community-building will top the agenda. Malaysia will preside over the organization during a critical the year in which it is expected to form an ASEAN Community (AC) by December 31, 2015. While ASEAN elites have long been skeptical that the deadline will be met, Malaysia will help formulate the “post-2015” ten-year roadmap for this community-building from 2016 to 2025. Work on this has already started, but it will nonetheless be a gargantuan task.
Economic integration will also be at the forefront of Malaysia’s chairmanship in 2015. Part of the agenda will center on the future of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), one of three pillars of the AC which aims to create a single market and production base. But Malaysia will also help conclude negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will be the world’s largest free trade agreement grouping ASEAN, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand upon its completion by the end of 2015. RCEP’s conclusion, along with an expected launch of China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), will likely lead to a deluge of commentary about the emerging shape of Asian integration and the role of China and the United States.
Read the full story at The Diplomat