Jakarta-led South-east Asia sea talks would irk China

Significance

Four of the states -- Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam -- are competing claimants in the waters to China. Singapore, the other invitee, is not. Neither is Indonesia, at least not formally.

Impacts

• ASEAN and China will increase the frequency of their meetings to discuss a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea in 2022.
• The regional fallout of the Myanmar crisis will continue to consume much of ASEAN’s diplomatic bandwidth.
• Despite preoccupation with Russia-Ukraine tensions, the United States will keep up presence missions in the South China Sea.