VietNamNet Bridge - There will be no free lunch, especially in difficult decisions. ASEAN and the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea) is also a similar case.
Last August, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated the 48th anniversary.
Also during that time, the debate among scholars, policymakers and observers, both inside and outside the region, about the importance of this bloc to the regional security and the foreign policy of each member country, heated up.
Referred to as the "linking forum" through its regional mechanisms such as the ASEAN + 1's, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN creates dialogue and solutions.
This connection makes ASEAN's central role in addressing various regional issues, even the most sensitive and thorny ones.
Views on the central role of ASEAN have been challenged in recent times, when the association seems to be increasingly drawn in many directions by the competition between the major powers, particularly the US and China.
This is evident in the East Sea dispute, which has more than once challenged the solidarity and central role of this bloc.
The concern has become more clearly since early 2012, when for the first time in the history of ASEAN, at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Cambodia, ministers could not make a joint statement.
And most recently it was the story of the "joint statement" at the China-ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Yunnan early this month.
The absence of internal consensus resulted in the situation that any updates from ASEAN on the joint statement, and a joint declaration between ASEAN and China, were not through.
The tense situation in the East Sea has put ASEAN and its mechanisms before opportunities as well as important challenges.
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