Aristyo Rizka Darmawan 1 January 2020

This year marks one of the most important years for ASEAN’s geopolitical landscape. During the plenary session of the 34th ASEAN Summit in June, all member states agreed to adopt the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. The brief five-page document emphasised the ASEAN led mechanism in dealing with strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific region. It could not be denied that one of the most important ongoing issues in the region is still the South China Sea dispute, so will the Outlook help to solve the ongoing dispute?