I am glad that more countries have expressed interest to join the CPTPP， including South Korea， Thailand and the UK. China is also watching the CPTPP carefully. They are not ready to join now， but I hope that they will seriously consider doing so sometime in the future. Similarly， I hope one day it will become politically possible for a US administration to rethink the US’ position， and recognise that it stands to gain， economically and strategically， from becoming a member of the partnership that it played a leading role in designing.
Meanwhile， countries in the Asia Pacific are working on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership （RCEP）. The RCEP has a different footprint from the CPTPP. It covers all the key countries on the western side of the Pacific， including Northeast and Southeast Asia， and also importantly India， Australia and New Zealand. This inclusive configuration minimises the risk of the RCEP being misperceived as a bloc that excludes the US and its friends. With such a wide range of participants， RCEP standards are naturally less ambitious than the CPTPP’s， and the deal is also much harder to negotiate. Nonetheless， I hope the participants can take the final step to complete the RCEP by this year， or if not， as soon as the domestic politics of the key players allow.
Of course， regional cooperation goes beyond trade. In Southeast Asia， ASEAN has provided ten very different countries an effective platform for dialogue and cooperation. ASEAN has deepened ties and kept the peace amongst its members. It has become an effective regional partner of other countries， and enabled its members to project a stronger external presence as a group.
ASEAN works on the basis of consensus. It makes more progress in some areas than others， because ASEAN members are not immune |
