[Bukit Timah Dialogue] In Conversation with George Yeo - ASEAN Adjusting to Geopolitical Tides

*This Bukit Timah Dialogue was recorded on 16 Feb 2022. On 8 August 1967, five Foreign Ministers hailing from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. This document birthed one of the most crucial intergovernmental organisations of our time, ASEAN. ASEAN has been a champion of the third way, the “ASEAN Way“ and approach to international relations through regional consensus and cooperation. Through a disciplined policy approach of non-interference and neutrality and healthy scepticism regarding consensus on ideological values, ASEAN has progressed steadily on its path to collective prosperity. In the past few years, the Rohingya problem, Myanmar military coup and the South China Sea dispute has brought increased scrutiny to ASEAN. Furthermore, the intensification of the US-China rivalry has made ASEAN’s studied neutrality increasingly difficult. Wi