ASEAN Community Vision 2045 Likely To Uphold Core Values Of Peace, Stability

By Vikneswaran Raman

KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 (Bernama) -- The ASEAN Community Vision (ACV) 2045, a new 20-year framework set to be launched on Monday in conjunction with the 46th ASEAN Summit, is expected to continue striving towards ASEAN’s core values of peace, stability, prosperity, and sustainable development. 

An expert in geopolitical and Asian studies, Prof Dr James Chin of the University of Tasmania, said the new vision will be very similar to the ACV 2025 launched in 2015, with greater emphasis towards inclusivity, sustainability, and resilience that will benefit nearly 700 million people in the region. 

“Maybe there will be something regarding Timor Leste, too. With the launch of the new vision, we can expect that every country will be trying very hard towards the aims, and target towards a better ASEAN Community. 

“But it will depend on each country – how far they’re going to push for it; some countries will perform better than others,” said the Director of the Asia Institute Tasmania, when contacted.

The historic 20-year vision will be a continuity of the 2015 ACV, a post-2009 to 2015 vision declared by ASEAN leaders in 2009. 

The ASEAN Community was officially established in 2015 during Malaysia’s previous ASEAN Chairmanship, with a 10-year framework of ACV 2025 anchored on three pillars – namely, the Political-Security Community, Economic Community, and Socio-Cultural Community.

Meanwhile, Chin said the ACV 2045 is unlikely to touch on the reciprocal tariff imposed by the United States, as well as the South China Sea and Myanmar crises. 

When the ACV 2025 was launched a decade ago, ASEAN countries recorded a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.6 trillion (US$1=RM4.23) in 2014.

Fast forward to today, ASEAN has marked a combined GDP of US$4.1 trillion in 2024 and is projected to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030. 

The 46th ASEAN Summit began yesterday with a senior officials’ meeting, and it is to be followed by a ministerial meeting tomorrow and a leaders’ summit, the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit and the ASEAN-GCC-China summit on Monday and Tuesday. 

-- BERNAMA