Is the U.S. central or peripheral to ASEAN?
The recent ASEAN-US Special Summit convened on 12-13 May has raised this relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership. The forthcoming QUAD Summit and the ASEAN countries chairing economic regional summit for the next two years makes the U.S. more attentive and affirmative about its relationship in the region, even though it approached the summit with a disparate idea of discussing Ukraine.