Depth report

　　

On May 11, local time, the 42nd ASEAN Summit concluded in the tourist town of Rabuan Bagao in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia.

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, the rotating chair of ASEAN, said at a press conference after the meeting that the leaders of the participating ASEAN member states stressed the importance of strengthening unity within ASEAN to maintain peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

A series of statements issued by ASEAN countries at the summit covered a wide range of areas, pledging to strengthen and deepen the integration process and strive to safeguard ASEAN's own status. Strengthening ASEAN's institutional capacity to enhance the effectiveness and flexibility of its work to address changing challenges; We should strengthen regional security and stability and accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development.

It is noteworthy that in the economic field, ASEAN countries have agreed to encourage the use of ASEAN local currency for cross-border transactions in accordance with national conditions, support the establishment of a working group to explore the development of ASEAN local currency transaction framework, support further cooperation to promote regional payments, connectivity and interoperability of cross-border payment systems, improve infrastructure and accelerate the use of digital payments.

Luo Yongkun, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said in an interview with the China Media Group Global Information Broadcast that this is not the first time ASEAN has discussed related topics. Asean already had consultations on relevant issues in 2015 and 2016. At the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in March this year, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines also signed cooperation agreements on relevant issues. Asean's renewed efforts to promote region-wide discussions reflect ASEAN's efforts to avoid international monetary and financial risks:

After the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, ASEAN countries saw the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the West, which caused Russia to face financial risks in many economic sectors. At the same time, the US continued to raise interest rates, leading to instability in the international financial system and debt risks. The currencies of ASEAN countries depreciated after the US raised interest rates. A series of circumstances force ASEAN countries to find ways to avoid risks in the current international economic and political system.

Asean chooses to vigorously promote local currency settlement and de-dollarization, which is a strategic choice for ASEAN to avoid risks. It will make the financial system in the region more stable in the future, which is also what ASEAN expects.

However, it still takes time and a lot of arrangements to establish this system. Asean should make good use of this window to gradually and steadily promote local currency settlement and form a regional currency settlement system and a regional monetary mechanism while conducting various economic cooperation with major countries. Once this mechanism is established, it will bring benefits to financial cooperation and integration cooperation in the whole region.

Luo further pointed out that the ASEAN Summit reached a number of consensus on strengthening economic cooperation, which shows that against the backdrop of great power game and international political and economic instability, ASEAN is defending its position by means of economic diplomacy:

I think the biggest highlight of this ASEAN summit is that ASEAN countries have reached a lot of consensus on strengthening economic cooperation.

At present, the international economic environment is generally not good. This year, the global economic growth rate is about 2%. The cooperation between ASEAN and major countries may face risks due to the economic difficulties of some countries.

That is why ASEAN has put economic development at the heart of this year's summit, and there has been a consensus to strengthen ASEAN and make it the center of growth in the region.

This reflects the confidence of ASEAN countries and the "ASEAN way" that ASEAN countries adopt when dealing with major power game and international political and economic instability -- to defend their own status by means of economic diplomacy while strengthening cooperation with neighboring powers. After all, the economy is now the foundation of the region's development.