Tokyo (VNA)꧅ - The36th ASEAN Summit, held online on June 26, presents a challenge not onlyfor the ten-nation bloc but also for its 2020 Chair, Vietnam, a senior analyst at the AustralianStrategic Policy Institute has said.

In an article published in the NikkeiAsia Review on June 25, Le Thu Huong said that Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995, nearly three decadesafter it was founded. Its economy lagged behind the six existing ASEAN members atthat time, but the subsequent quarter of a century has seen it post impressive growth,despite the recent effect of the US-China trade war on the region. Shewrote that Vietnam is seen to have performed strongly in the fight against COVID-19,earning respect from wealthier and more developed member states such as Singapore,Thailand, and Malaysia for its suppression of the disease. The countryremains economically less developed than many other ASEAN member states but is poisedto minimise the economic hit from COVID-19, recovering faster from the post-pandemicglobal recession and adapting to new opportunities better than most of its neighbours,she said. It has proveda capable host in previous stints as ASEAN Chair, which rotates annually. It hasalso taken a pivotal role in conflict management in the East Sea, emerging as theregion’s frontline defender of the territorial status quo. More importantly, ithas expressed strong support for ASEAN’s institutional relevance in the region. For allthese reasons, she went on, Vietnam’s fellow ASEAN members appear confident in Hanoi’sdiplomatic capability, even in the trying circumstances of an online and relativelyunderprepared summit. Whateverthe outcome of the virtual summit, however, the group needs to come to terms withthe fact that no single member can restore its diplomatic centrality. That requiresa collective effort of the willing and the committed, Huong wrote./.