ASEAN's Achievements under Cambodian Chairmanship 2022

Khmer Times, Opinion 10 January 2023, (Link)

It was with great pride and honor that Cambodia successfully hosted the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in November, and the whole Cambodian team can finally feel relieved as we passed on the chairmanship to Indonesia after the year-long dedication and hard work from each and every member of the organizing committee.

We have tried our best to put a smile on the face of every leader who attended the summits, and allow everyone to return home with a good memory of a fulfilling visit to Cambodia, both in terms of success on the substance of the deliberations, revitalization of friendship and direct personal engagement among leaders after a long hiccup caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The support and assistance, cooperation and flexibility extended by all ASEAN member states, as well as our external partners, have been indispensable for Cambodia to steer the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' process successfully throughout 2022 under the theme “ASEAN A.C.T.: Addressing Challenges Together."

Everyone can agree that 2022 was an exceptionally challenging year, with many "hot stones" – the term coined by Prime Minister Hun Sen suggesting difficult issues even more serious than hot potatoes – affecting the region and the world at the same time as other rising geopolitical tensions, such as impacts of the war in Ukraine, the Myanmar crisis, escalation of the situations in the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, while we already had our hands full with intensifying efforts to recover from Covid-19, climate-change impacts, and many other existing issues.

Yet ASEAN and our partners succeeded in showing the world that multilateralism is still the best solution for global problems. With our joint efforts through the ASEAN process, we can better manage uncertainties and complexities, or even prevent the dangers of miscalculation, amid intensifying superpower rivalries and regional wars, as well as the threat of a nuclear war.

In listing what we have achieved, we have to carefully and constantly bear in mind that the achievements belong to all ASEAN member states, not just Cambodia alone. And the achievements under Cambodian chairmanship are also the results that stemmed from the work of the previous chairmanships. This continuity of the ASEAN process holds true for every other ASEAN chairmanship, including that of Indonesia this year.

To begin with, in January 2022, we started our chairmanship with the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement. This is a greatly positive light amid the gloomy global economic situation. It is worth noting that RCEP negotiation was launched in 2012 in Cambodia also during that country's chairmanship. It is a light of hope against trade protectionism when geopolitical rivalries also affect trade and economic aspects.

In August 2022, at the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM), all eyes focused on Cambodia with suspicion owing to the non-issuance of the traditional Joint Communiqué (JC) in 2012. But Cambodia successfully chaired the 55th AMM, and the JC was adopted smoothly after lengthy negotiation to bridge differences among all the ASEAN member states.

Adoption of the three ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) statements is another excellent example of success. Chairing a negotiation among 27 countries' positions with conflicting parties sitting at the same table was an uphill battle.

Everyone was on the brink of giving up. But thank God, all three statements were adopted. Phnom Penh had become the platform where China, Russia and the US were together in two major platforms, the ARF and the East Asia Summit (EAS), and they exchanged their contrasting views in a civilized manner.

Trust and confidence were given back to Cambodia after 10 years, because countries recognized and acknowledged the sincerity and honesty of the Cambodian chair, which diligently tried to listen to all of their concerns.

Combining the achievements from the summits with the AMM, more than 130 documents have been adopted and noted; seven new countries have become parties to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (now 50 parties in total); the US and India have become comprehensive strategic partners; Brazil and the United Arab Emirates have become sectoral dialogue partners; and Timor-Leste has been accepted in principle to become the 11th member of ASEAN.

Having Timor-Leste accepted after more than a decade of application is nothing short of a miracle. Under Cambodia’s chairmanship, the issue has been made one of ASEAN’s top priorities.

The fact-finding missions to Timor Leste by ASEAN delegation from the two pillars, namely the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the ASEAN Social-Cultural Community (ASCC), were conducted in July 2022 after being delayed for two years by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fact-finding mission of the ASEAN Political Security Community (APSC) was completed in September 2019. ASEAN Leaders also tasked the ASEAN Coordinating Council to formulate the roadmap for Timor-Leste’s full membership and report it to the next summit for adoption.

ASEAN continues to rejuvenate fruitful cooperation with all the 11 dialogue partners. Besides the heavy duty of co-chairing many summits with dialogue partners in Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen also successfully co-chaired with President Joe Biden the ASEAN-US Special Summit, the first ever to be held in Washington, DC, on May 12-13, 2022.

Moreover, he also co-chaired with President Charles Michel of the European Council the ASEAN-EU Commemorative Summit on December 14, 2022, in Brussels on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-EU dialogue relations.

As 2025 is just around the corner, ASEAN also needs to develop the ASEAN Community's Post-2025 Vision. With Malaysia as the permanent shepherd of the High-Level Task Force on the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision (HLTF-ACV), Cambodia co-chaired five meetings of the HLTF-ACV, and we could finally adopt the Recommendations on Strengthening ASEAN’s Capacity and Institutional Effectiveness and take note of the proposed Core Elements of the ASEAN Community’s Post-2025 Vision that would enable ASEAN to be responsive and better adapt to a fast and dramatically changing world.

On Myanmar’s political crisis, the meetings commended the utmost efforts of Cambodia as the ASEAN chair and the special envoy of the ASEAN chair in implementing ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus (5PC) with a view to helping Myanmar restore peace and stability, and return to normalcy.

Extremely serious negotiation was made until the last minute before the ASEAN leaders could adopt the ASEAN Leaders’ Review and Decision on the Implementation of the Five-Point Consensus, which contained 15 points including the call for the development of an implementation plan that outlines concrete, practical and measurable indicators with specific timeline to support the 5PC.

On the South China Sea (SCS), progress was made by ASEAN and China in the negotiations of the Code of Conduct (COC). Last year, Cambodia hosted two meetings in a row to negotiate the COC, once in May in Siem Reap, and the other in October in Phnom Penh.

These meetings were the first resumption of physical negotiation of COC after a two-year disruption. The Joint Statement of the 20th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) was also adopted at the summit level. 

On the war in Ukraine, Cambodia firmly adheres to the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the universally recognized norms concerning the respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of the UN member states. Thus Cambodia voted on October 12, 2022, in favor of and co-sponsored the eesolution on “Territorial Integrity of Ukraine: Defending the Principles of the UN Charter."

Cambodia opposes the invasion, the use of force, and the annexation of any state.

As the ASEAN chair in 2022, Cambodia coordinated to have three ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Statements issued to express concern over the situation in Ukraine, and to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and a return to political dialogues.

We encouraged and provided opportunity for the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia to talk to each other and give peace a chance through diplomacy while they were in Phnom Penh. Even though that did not happen, they both had good opportunities to present their views.

This was the prime example of how Cambodia exercised independent foreign policy based on the rule of law.

Under the Cambodia-Japan-Ukraine tripartite cooperation, Cambodia has decided to send a number of technical experts to train demining techniques and skills to Ukrainian deminers in Poland. At the same time, Cambodia will also provide technical training and share experiences directly to 15 deminers and management personnel from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine this month in Cambodia.

Cambodia, despite being a small and relatively still a poor country, will consider other possible assistance to support the safety of the Ukrainian people.

On superpower rivalry, it is noticeable that on November 22, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe met face-to-face on the sideline of the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus), in Siem Reap, the spiritual ancient capital of Cambodia. This meeting was described as "productive and professional" and a "substantive dialogue on reducing strategic risk and enhancing operational safety."

On the Indo-Pacific, ASEAN welcomed any initiatives from external partners that aim to contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity. ASEAN Leaders adopted (1) the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Mainstreaming Four Priority Areas of the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific and (2) the ASEAN Roadmap on Promoting ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific, which is the initiative of Cambodia.

These are real examples of ASEAN’s diplomacy and multilateral leadership in the common endeavor for peace, security, stability and prosperity by utilizing ASEAN-led mechanisms. The successful ASEAN and ASEAN-related meetings during Cambodia’s chairmanship reaffirms respect for ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture, and also support for the relevance of ASEAN mechanism in providing an open and inclusive platform for constructive dialogues address common concern, resolve differences and de-escalate the situation.