The Construct of ‘Indo-Pacific Region’ in the ASEAN Political Discourse

ASEAN is sitting in the very heart of the Indo-Pacific region yet Association is not dominating the regionalisation agenda of this geopolitical space nor leads the way in diplomatic and political discussions on the key functions of this region -be it security, trade or territorial disputes.One of the key reasons why ASEAN is sidelined from true regionalisation efforts is that the grouping's members are still struggling to find a consensus to clearly structure their own political, security, and economic priorities within the current geostrategic layouts.ASEAN reluctance to settle with single regionalism instead of multiple setups is clearly visible in Association's diplomatic and political discourses, in particular, in the way the concept of Indo-Pacific region is handled in those discourses.