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Vietnam steps up as a regional leader
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 19/08/2025
» Vietnam wisely chose South Korea to showcase a new strategic-economic partnership in the region, focusing on growing trade, investment, and diplomatic cooperation. As the first country to dispatch a top leader to meet newly elected President Lee Jae-myung, the Hanoi government sends a clear signal to both Northeast and Southeast Asia that South Korea and Vietnam are emerging together as a driving force of regional connectivity and economic growth.
Three summits jointly boost centrality
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 22/11/2022
» Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand with distinctive styles of leadership and diplomatic finesse have succeeded in performing the most difficult somersault in international relations by uniting concerned parties from all sides over the Ukraine war to agree to disagree and then agree to agree. Bravo to the trio of Asean members for the outstanding success. A task that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago suddenly became a possibility. Indeed, if global leaders had some humility like the leaders in this part of the world, the outcome of these regional summits could serve as a stepping stone for peace and stability in the wider world. Southeast Asia could even shape the new international order in the making, as the hosts of three summits -- Asean, G20, and Apec -- have demonstrated.
Watch out for Asean's new Indo-Pacific
News, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 04/12/2018
» If everything goes as planned, members of the United Nations Security Council will have a rendezvous in Bangkok at the end of 2019. Asean leaders will use the occasion to display to the world's most powerful players their collective leadership on the new vision of an Asia-wide region stretching from South Asia to Northeast Asia. Even though it is still nearly a year away, preparations for the first meeting between Asean leaders and the Big 5 (the council's five permanent members) have already started in earnest.