The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the Institute of Defence

www.rsis.edu.sg No.087– 24 October 2024 The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies of the S. [...] COMMENTARY According to the Chairman’s Statement of the 44th and 45th ASEAN summits, ASEAN leaders discussed five regional and international issues of common interest to the ASEAN political security community. [...] This paper posits that developments in Myanmar and the South China Sea situation are of utmost importance to ASEAN and could make the political-security landscape less conducive to the ASEAN community-building process. [...] But what can ASEAN, including the ADMM/ADMM-Plus, do to address these issues, given that progress in implementing the Five-Point Consensus in Myanmar and in the negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) has been slow? It could be argued that the geopolitical context that enabled existing ASEAN mechanisms — such as the ARF, East Asia Summit (EAS), and Treaty of Amity and Coop. [...] ASEAN could explore how the lessons learned and the capacities built through the achievements of the EWGs — such as the ASEAN Militaries Ready Group on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (AMRG on HADR) and the ASEAN Direct Communications Infrastructure (ADI) — could be adapted and utilised to help ASEAN countries mitigate the spillover effects of conflict.