Satterthwaite wrote:Novus America wrote:
ASEAN is unfortunately useless. The US could help more but Duterte hates the US and does everything Xi tells him to do instead.
Deadass. What does ASEAN even do at this point? Online SEA game servers accomplish more for inter-SEA communications than ASEAN ever will.
Provide good excuses for junkets for all government officials of both the ASEAN members and the Plus/Partner countries. And visa-free travel for a month in each ASEAN state.
No one wants to go farther in political and security/defense cooperation because "muh sovereignty", even though Duterte and his other colleague the Great and Glorious Commander and Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia (yes the motherf**ker actually demands that he be styled like that every time his name is mentioned) are all too happy to bend-over backwards for the Xi Dynasty and the new oligarchs and Chinese megacorps. Then again, lots of money and ego-stroking is a good way to reach typical Asian politicians of most any stripe...
Also, I sometimes get the feeling that ASEAN politicians and governments would rather bow down to Chinese, Americans, Japanese or other foreigners rather than take marching orders from Singaporeans/Malaysians/Filipinos/Indonesians/Thais/Vietnamese/Burmese.