This archive report was first published on 26 June 2020.
Published on June 26, 2020, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit is underway, with a focus on addressing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has ravaged the economies of tourism and export-reliant countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, with the 10-member bloc struggling to cope with the financial burden.
ASEAN's current chair, Vietnam, is also seeking to inject momentum into talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a sprawling China-backed trade pact that aims to loop in half the world's population and third of its GDP.
However, India's refusal to join the pact over access to its market for cheap goods from China has hampered progress, with the two countries locked in a deadly border row.
ASEAN's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc gave a sobering opening address, emphasizing the 'serious consequences' of the pandemic for economic development among ASEAN members.
'It has swept away the successes of recent years... threatening the lives of millions of people,' he said.
There is also increasing angst that the virus and its fallout has provided cover for China to make new plays in the South China Sea, the resource-rich waterway Beijing claims most of but is also contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
China's actions in the South China Sea have been described as 'business as usual' by Vietnam expert Carl Thayer, an academic at the University of New South Wales.
'It needs to be restarted,' he said of negotiations on a so-called Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, which have stalled due to the pandemic.
