ISC Special Talk "Global Geopolitical Developments: Implications for ASEAN" by Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan 25 March 2024 Narathip Auditorium, Ministry of Foreign Affairs ISBN 978-616-341-155-6 (Download .pdf below)

"Now, ASEAN, to my mind, has been rather slow to adapt to this much more fluid and dynamic strategic environment. We talked a lot about centrality. We choose to believe it when our dialogue partners congratulate us on our centrality. But, what does centrality really mean? Centrality really means making yourself useful. How you make yourself useful in the past is not necessarily how you’re going to make yourself useful in the future. In fact, it cannot be. Don’t forget that the emblems of ASEAN centrality, for example, the ARF, and the EAS, were actually conceived of and implemented during that short period of world history. So, they still perform a function but it’s not quite the same function or the same relevance, the same usefulness as in the past. It’s a hard fact that we have yet to fully internalize."

Excerpt from Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan's speech