The 55th annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers was held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on August 3, 2022. The theme of this year’s summit was “ASEAN A.C.T – Addressing Challenges Together” and focused on sustaining the momentum of the ten ASEAN members’ community-building efforts.
At the conclusion of the meeting, a joint communique was released, signed by all member nations. The communique started by reinforcing the organization’s commitment to the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 roadmap that focuses on member nations working together for greater prosperity while concomitantly fulfilling the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
One of the challenges included in the communique included ASEAN member nations’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, lauding the “proactive, whole-of-Community approach” that helped member states more swiftly recover from the disease. The communique also noted the important role played by the ASEAN Coordinating Council Working Group on Public Health Emergencies (ACCWG-PHE) in addressing the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic in a “coordinated, multi-sectoral, cross-pillar, and multi-stakeholder” manner.
Other challenges included in the communique included ASEAN’s continued commitment to keeping the region a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone as well as free of other weapons of mass destruction, the “One China Policy,” and the importance of adhering to the 1982 UNCLOS convention on the law of the sea for settling maritime boundary disputes.
The communique also affirmed ASEAN members’ support for providing humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, including the ongoing efforts to repatriate members of the Muslim minority from the Rakhine state, most of whom are currently still living as refugees in Bangladesh, as well as ASEAN’s continuing commitment to restore “normalcy” and a democratic form of government in Myanmar.
Bilateral Relations
The Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Phnom Penh also featured a number of one-on-one dialogues between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and leaders of non-member states, including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “Our two countries are working to build a community of common destiny,” said Wang following the meeting, although further details were not provided.
Other leaders who met with Prime Minister Hun Sen included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, which focused on the long history of friendship and cooperation between the two nations, as well as Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, who spoke about the Everything But Arms (EBA) trade agreement between the EU and Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked the EU for providing cooperation and assistance to Cambodia since 1992 as well as donating Covid-19 vaccines to help combat the pandemic.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also met with the Cambodian Prime Minister where the focus of conversation was about export markets, free trade, and development assistance. However, other issues were also discussed such as U.S. soldiers from the Vietnam War era who are still unaccounted for in Cambodia.
In what was perhaps the most significant bilateral meeting between Cambodia and non-member nations, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashai discussed the two countries’ cooperation on the Sihanoukville Port project that will play an important role in boosting the economy in both Cambodia and the surrounding region. After the meeting, Japan agreed to loan Cambodia an additional $300 million to help complete the construction of the deepwater port.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen brought up the topic of Western anti-Russian sanctions with the representatives of the European Union, the United States, and Japan, warning that the sanctions were severely impacting Cambodia’s economy as well as the economy of other ASEAN members.
ASEAN is an economic and political union of ten countries in Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ASEAN was founded in 1967, initially to unite countries in the region against the spread of Communism. The next ASEAN meeting will be held in Malaysia in 2023.
