Global Security Governance: Current Situation and Prospects

Air Marshal Saisak Kanpachai, Adviser of National Defense College, Thailand

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Global Security Governance: Current Situation and Prospects

Air Marshal Saisak Kanpachai, Adviser of National Defense College, Thailand

Good morning to all participants of commemorative event for the International Day of Peace 2018, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Air Marshal Saisak Kanpachai from Thailand. Today I would like to give a keynote speech on Global Security Governance: Current Situation and Prospects. My speech will focus on impacts of global security in Southeast Asia. The outline of my speech consists of Regional Security Situation, Belt and Road Initiative, Indo-Pacific Strategy, Impacts on ASEAN, Standpoint of ASEAN and Conclusion.

Regional Security Situation Same as other regions, at present Southeast Asia is facing a new form of threats. Instead of traditional threat, non-traditional threats in Southeast Asia include terrorism and violent extremism, cybercrime, transnational crime and disaster and climate change. Therefore ASEAN members have to find the ways to respond to these new threats unilaterally and multilaterally.

Belt and Road Initiative The Belt and Road Initiative introduced by Chinese government aims to enhance economic cooperation among the countries in many regions of the world including Southeast Asia, Middle Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Middle East and Europe. BRI will create more economic cooperation between ASEAN and China. Because of BRI, ASEAN Economic Community consisting of more than 600 million population will draw more attention from its trading partners outside Southeast Asia. Additionally Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor will be connected with other economic communities via BRI.

Indo-pacific Strategy Indo-Pacific Strategy is an initiative to link the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean together. The main players of this strategy include Japan, the United States of America, India and Australia. The new strategy aims to enhance security and economic cooperation among the regions in both the Pacific and the Indian Oceans including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa.

Impacts on ASEAN For impacts on ASEAN, BRI enhances economic cooperation among ASEAN, China, and other regions along both overland and maritime routes. It also creates development of infrastructure and logistic system in the region especially in Indo-China. In the meantime Indo-Pacific Strategy strengthens security and economic cooperation between Southeast Asia and other regions in the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.

Standpoint of ASEAN towards BRI and Indo-Pacific Strategy Unique characteristics of ASEAN are peaceful solutions for regional conflicts and non-intervention policy towards internal conflicts of member countries. ASEAN values both BRI and Indo-Pacific Strategy as both of them enhances economic and security cooperation in the region. Additionally, as a chair of ASEAN in 2019, Thailand has to find the ways to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN’s counterparts in BRI and Indo-Pacific Strategy.

In conclusion, even though BRI and Indo-Pacific Strategy have the same aims to enhance economic and security cooperation in many regions including Southeast Asia, they tend to have some conflicts of interest among the main players. ASEAN therefore has to find the ways to create environment to avoid confrontation among the main players. Additionally ASEAN has to enhance existing cooperation and search for new cooperation with its counterparts especially superpowers. This concludes my speech.

Thank you for your kind attention.