The long-running South China Sea dispute involves six parties with overlapping claims. However, China’s outsized heft and mounting forcefulness at sea, in the air, and in cyberspace present a unique challenge to its smaller neighbors. Harassment of Southeast Asian vessels, airspace provocation, and cyber campaigns have persisted even over the course of the pandemic. Negotiations with China on a “Code of Conduct” have dragged on without resolution.

Can ASEAN’s focus on this issue — let alone unity — hold against competing priorities such as elections, pandemic recovery, and the Myanmar crisis? What will this year’s ASEAN Chair (Cambodia) and a new ASEAN-China Country Coordinator (Myanmar) mean for Code of Conduct negotiations? What role is there for external players in managing disputes in the South China Sea?  A panel of experts from the region will explore these questions and possible policy options for Southeast Asia’s frontline states, building on the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI)’s new report, The South China Sea: Realities and Responses in Southeast Asia. 

Join us for a conversation moderated by Elina Noor, ASPI’s director of political-security affairs and deputy director, Washington DC, with Sumathy Permal, fellow and head of the Centre for the Straits of Malacca, Maritime Institute of Malaysia; Nguyen Hung Son, vice president of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) and director-general of the East Sea (South China Sea) Institute; and Evan Laksmana, senior research fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalization, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

SPEAKERS

Sumathy Permal is Fellow and Head of the Center for the Straits of Malacca, with the Maritime Institute of Malaysia. Her research areas are in geopolitics of the Asia Pacific and maritime security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Sumathy is on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Maritime & Ocean Affairs and Associate Member of the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies, King’s College, United Kingdom. She also sits on the Board of Studies (2021-2022) of the Asia Europe Institute, University Malaya. Sumathy was a member of the International Expert Panel - Maritime Awareness Program convened in 2016 by the National Bureau of Asian Research and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA. She is a Professional Fellow On-Demand as part of the U.S. State Department’s Exchange Program for Think-Tanks in Asia. Sumathy is a columnist of the Malaysian New Straits Times.

Nguyen Hung Son is Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) and Director-General of the East Sea (South China Sea) Institute. Previously, he was Deputy Director-General of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the DAV. His research focuses on major powers relations, regional security governance, maritime security, and Vietnam’s foreign policy. As a diplomat, Nguyen Hung Son served as Minister Counsellor of the Vietnam Embassy in Ottawa, Canada (2015-2018) and Second Secretary of the Vietnam Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden (2004-2006). He also served at the ASEAN department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, extensively participating in regional summits and processes. He was a member of the Vietnam High Level Task Force delegation negotiating the ASEAN Charter in 2006-2007. He served as head of the ASEAN Standing Committee division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Vietnam presided over the ASEAN Standing Committee from July 2000 to July 2001. Nguyen Hung Son received his B.A. degree from the National Economic University of Vietnam, an MSc in International Economics from Birmingham University in the United Kingdom, and a PhD in International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

Evan A. Laksmana is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He was previously Senior Researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia and the Wang Gungwu Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He has also held visiting appointments at the National Bureau of Asian Research, the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and others. His research has appeared in Journal of Contemporary Asia, Asian Security, Asian Politics & Policy, Defense & Security Analysis, Asia Policy, Contemporary Southeast Asia, and others. He has written for Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, South China Morning Post, RAND, Brookings Institution, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, and others. He earned his MA and PhD in political science from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as a Fulbright Presidential Scholar.