Last week, the United States and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations held a high-level conference on the global coronavirus pandemic. Though this was just one of several interactions between the two sides in this regard, it nonetheless spotlighted one area on which Washington and Southeast Asian states have been looking to advance collaboration amid a crisis and the opportunities and challenges in this respect.
While that focus has usually been on headline-making assistance or funding amounts, U.S. assistance with coronavirus has focused on longstanding areas of emphasis that are still continuing amid COVID-19, including assistance to individual countries and ASEAN covering preparedness, diagnostic capabilities, and exchange programs; the provision of expertise, training, and human capital via a range of agencies such as the U.S. Though they build on existing lines of effort and some of them had been in the works before as well, they would help open more channels for cooperation for both sides if followed through on and showcase both Washington’s commitment to supporting ASEAN and ASEAN’s continued relevance in Asia’s regional architecture which has come under scrutiny previously.
To be sure, advancing these areas of cooperation are not without their challenges.
This article was written by Prashanth Parameswaran
To read the full article, please click on the following link:https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/whats-next-for-us-asean-cooperation-amid-the-global-coronavirus-pandemic/
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