ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific

The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) was adopted by ASEAN leaders at the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in June 2019, under Thailand's chairmanship. It represents the bloc's collective response to the competing Indo-Pacific concepts advanced by the United States, Japan, Australia, India, and later the European Union, while seeking to preserve ASEAN's role as the convening platform for regional security and economic architecture.

The Outlook rests on several guiding principles: ASEAN centrality, openness, transparency, inclusivity, a rules-based framework, good governance, respect for sovereignty, non-intervention, and complementarity with existing cooperation frameworks. Unlike the U.S. Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, the AOIP is explicitly non-containment in tone and avoids naming China as a strategic competitor. It treats the Indo-Pacific as a region of "dialogue and cooperation instead of rivalry."

The AOIP identifies four priority areas of cooperation:

• Maritime cooperation, including disputes resolution through peaceful means and UNCLOS
• Connectivity, linked to the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025
• UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030
• Economic and other possible areas of cooperation, such as trade facilitation and the digital economy

Implementation runs primarily through ASEAN-led mechanisms: the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum. Dialogue partners including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, China, the United States, and the EU have issued joint statements aligning their own Indo-Pacific approaches with the AOIP.

Critics note the document is short (roughly seven pages), aspirational rather than operational, and lacks dedicated funding or a binding implementation timeline. Supporters argue its strategic ambiguity is precisely what allows ten member states with divergent threat perceptions—from the Philippines and Vietnam to Cambodia and Laos—to maintain a common position amid US-China rivalry.