The following is an excerpt from an op-ed by Bryanna Entwistle, Press and Program Officer, ASPI, and Meghan Murphy, Schwarzman Fellow, ASPI, in 9DashLine.

This month has seen Laos experience a flurry of diplomatic activity in the form of overlapping Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits. These included the ASEAN Summit between Southeast Asian member countries; meetings with ASEAN dialogue partners like the United States and China; and the East Asia Summit (EAS) between 18 participating countries. Both the ASEAN and EAS consensus statements on key policy issues, released by the 2024 host Laos, demanded an immediate halt to fighting in Myanmar, expressed concern over tensions in the South China Sea, and voiced worries over the war in Gaza.

ASEAN's need for unanimous agreement on issue statements and decision-making makes progress on regional issues challenging due to its diverse and often competing member interests. This has incited scepticism about the utility of annual meetings and limited the impact of their consensus statements. As a result, much of the summit's importance is tied to the seniority of attending leaders, reflecting which powers prioritise Southeast Asia.

Concerns about regional commitment

This year, U.S. President Joe Biden skipped the summits for the second year in a row with Secretary of State Antony Blinken taking his place instead, prompting a flurry of commentators to conclude that the American president is snubbing the region. Biden’s absence this year, especially in the context of American entanglements with war in the Levant, indicates that the Obama-era goal of reducing American commitments in the Middle East and ‘pivoting’ strategic attention to Asia continues to elude the United States. However, as CSIS’s Gregory Poling argued, the reality is that American presidents facing a flurry of summits across the world cannot always make every one. Other regional powers regularly skip the summits as well: China has divided responsibilities so that Premier Li Qiang, and not party head Xi Jinping, always attends ASEAN and EAS Summits.

One attendee of note was Indian Prime Minister Nardendra Modi, who assured the bloc that tapping into ASEAN markets is a core part of India’s Act East Policy — his plan for India to play a greater role in the region’s security and counter Chinese influence. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was also in Vientiane, during which he oversaw the adoption of a joint statement to establish an ASEAN-ROK Comprehensive Strategic Agreement.

As for the Southeast Asian attendance, notable no-shows included Indonesia’s outgoing President Jokowi Widodo and Vietnam’s General Secretary Tô Lâm, who was instead on a bilateral visit in Paris. The Jakarta Post’s editorial board condemned Jokowi’s absence, calling it “bad foreign policy” and warning that the absence “undermines Indonesia’s claim that ASEAN is the cornerstone of its foreign policy”. Additionally, Myanmar sent a delegate in the form of the permanent secretary at the Foreign Ministry, Aung Kyaw Moe. Although Myanmar has been restricted to only sending “non-political” representatives, the meetings in Vientiane were the first time the junta agreed to send a delegate since they seized power in a 2021 coup.

While Biden’s absence has commanded the most scrutiny, Lam and Jokowi’s decisions to not attend the ASEAN meetings are more destabilising to the bloc. Skipping the group’s most important meeting sets the precedent that it is permissible for leaders to eschew the biannual meeting, risking diminishing the summits’ significance. Meanwhile, by sending their heads of state, Korea, Japan, and India sent a strong message about their commitment to ASEAN.

Read the full op-ed in 9DashLine.