ASEAN twenty-seventeen

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OH ASEAN...

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit served as an opportinity for the Philippines to tackle trade relations, concerns about migrant workers, terrorism, and the South China Sea. This is a gateway to help one another hand and hand for the partnering for success. Although there were so called "hits" in the topics they were able to address, there was a problem they failed to bring up in the meeting as well.

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Oh what a success for the Philippines that China has finally agreed to a South China sea code of conduct. China says that countries would have an "unbridled and unfettered" access to the long fought for territory in the West Philippine Sea. The large country agrees to have talks about the code to solve the disputes between the two nations.

Terrorism on the other hand, is a relevant problem felt not only in the country but throughout the whole world as well. For the safety of all, countries, partners, agreed to strengthen defense against terrorist attacks to protect all citizens from the dangers that can come about. According to Philstar

"The US and ASEAN have vowed to curtail the threat of terrorism through information sharing and law enforcement cooperation in an effort to prevent the militants from establishing a base in Southeast Asia as they continue to backpedal in the Middle East." 

For the case of migrant workers being treated unfairly, it has finally been discussed. This talk ended with the signing of the document by the Asian Leaders that would protect the interests and the welfare of those workers in the region. In this document, it included the fair treatment of the workers with visitation rights for their family, protection from sexual violences and harassment, etc.

Although many would say that the summit was a success however, it actually failed to address the the issues of human rights with president Rodrigo Duterte. Although he mentioned it in his opening statement, other leaders kept away from saying anything related to the drug killings in the country after the president had warned them to "lay off" in a pre-summit statement. this was actually disappointing that they didn't stand up for the killings despite being in favor of democratic values, and human rights.

The conference between leaders from the US, and South East Asia held here in the Philippines i would deem as a success. This is without the failure to mention the issue of Human rights violations present in the country. But with regard to cooperation, success and improvement in the area, the ASEAN summit was able to address most major issues and has given solutions to them to make change for the better. This also showed that the country is able to host a meeting of this scale and scope earning them recognition from the world community palace spokesperson Harry Roque said.

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Information taken from

Tatad, F. (2017). Asean summits’ silence on the summary killings.  Retrieved from http://www.manilatimes.net/asean-summits-silence-summary-killings/362838/

Moral, A. (2017). World leaders in Manila: Key events at ASEAN summit. Retrieved from

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/11/16/1759162/world-leaders-manila-key-events-asean-summit