Asean must act to get US, China talking - Scholar

KUALA LUMPUR - Asean needs to play a proactive role to get the United States (US) and China to have dialogues to reduce their intense rivalry, prominent geopolitical scholar Prof Kishore Mahbubani said.

The illustrious former Singaporean diplomat who predicts the geopolitical contests between the two world major powers will continue to accelerate in the next 10 years said, the 10 member regional grouping must protect its own interests too.

He likened the Southeast Asian Organisation to a Ming dynasty vase, that is very precious and extraordinary but fragile, adding that Asean itself must avoid getting caught in the middle of intense rivalry between the two superpowers.

"If Asean does nothing, it will get trampled,” he said at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) Distinguished Lecture Series "When Elephants Fight, Will Asean Get Trampled” on Thursday.

He said fundamentally, both the countries should understand that it is now a multipolar world and that strengthening multilateralism is the wise thing to do.

Instead of competing both countries should shift their strength and capacity to work on other more urgent issues that are fronting the world today, including climate change and strengthening world institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Kishore said the both countries should also take the initiative to revive the China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).

The SED, a framework for the US and China to discuss topics related to economic relations between them was started by former President George W. Bush and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in 2006, was stopped by former President Donald Trump.

"They should start talking to each other, talk more regularly and the world will be a better place,” the scholar said. - BERNAMA