59th ASEAN Day: ASEAN Must Strengthen Cooperation, Unity, Centrality – Sec-gen
By Nik Nurfaqih Nik Wil
JAKARTA, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- ASEAN must strengthen cooperation, maintain its unity and enhance its centrality as the region confronts growing geopolitical tensions, economic disruptions and other challenges that increasingly transcend national borders.
ASEAN Secretary-General Dr Kao Kim Hourn said the bloc had grown from an association of five countries in 1967 into an 11-member community and one of the world's most dynamic economic regions, while becoming an important contributor to peace and stability in the wider Indo-Pacific.
He said the Philippines' ASEAN Chairmanship theme, ‘Navigating Our Shared Future Together’, reminded the region that while countries had different priorities and circumstances, their people shared aspirations for peace, dignity, opportunity and a better life for their children.
“Achieving these aspirations depends on, increasingly, how we respond to challenges that transcend national borders. This is why ASEAN's habit of cooperation remains relevant today,” he said in his remarks at the 59th ASEAN Day celebration here on Saturday.
Kao said this year's ASEAN Day was particularly significant as it was being celebrated for the first time as a family of 11 member states, welcoming Timor-Leste as ASEAN's newest member.
“Timor-Leste's accession marks the culmination of many years of partnership, progress, and preparation. It also reflects ASEAN's confidence that our community is stronger when it becomes more inclusive,” he said.
He said stronger regional cooperation was increasingly important as conflicts beyond Southeast Asia disrupted trade and affected food and energy prices, while strategic competition, shifting global supply chains and climate change posed further challenges to the region.
He also highlighted the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), saying it had provided a steady foundation for interstate relations in the region.
He said its principles, including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and the peaceful settlement of disputes, had helped ASEAN preserve peace, build trust and maintain the stability that underpinned the region's growth despite decades of geopolitical shifts and economic fragmentation.
Against this backdrop, Kao said the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 assumed greater significance as a common direction and ‘strategic compass’ for the grouping to navigate a changing world while preserving the principles that had underpinned the regional community since its founding.
Looking ahead to ASEAN's 60th anniversary next year, Kao said young people would remain among the grouping's greatest strengths, with almost half of its population under the age of 30 and a generation increasingly studying, doing business and collaborating across borders.
He said ASEAN's future would depend partly on whether young people viewed it not simply as an institution of governments, officials and diplomats, but as something that created opportunities in their everyday lives, including in education, employment, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability and digital transformation.
“On this 59th ASEAN Day, we celebrate not only what ASEAN has achieved, but also the trust and confidence that by continuing to work together, our community will remain relevant, resilient, peaceful and stable for generations to come,” he said.
-- BERNAMA
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