Cambodia’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2022: Rising above Doubts and Pushing through a Difficult Year

Summary

Choosing the theme “ASEAN A.C.T.: Addressing Challenges Together”, Cambodia appeared to have the foresight in anticipating that its ASEAN chairmanship in 2022 would be beset with even greater challenges in an increasingly divided and uncertain world. At the handover ceremony of the chairmanship from Brunei to Cambodia on 28 October 2021, Prime Minister Hun Sen noted that “ASEAN must be resilient and strong against the pressure and influence stemming from rising geo-political competition” and other regional challenges.

In retrospect, Cambodia did assume the chairmanship when ASEAN had to confront more acute problems than the previous year or perhaps in all its fiftyfive years of history. As the chair country, Cambodia had to lead ASEAN through deadlocked issues such as the political crisis in Myanmar, stalling negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea (COC), intensifying US-China rivalry, the manifold effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and heightened tensions in the Taiwan Straits. All of these problems stand to further polarize ASEAN and derail its unity.

The 2022 chairmanship could also be Phnom Penh's opportunity to redeem itself after the failure of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting to issue a joint communiqué when Cambodia was the ASEAN Chair in 2012. Observers were curious as to whether Cambodia could act in defence of ASEAN's interests in light of its traditionally pro-China foreign policy, while some wondered if it could achieve the targeted deliverables because of its generally passive role in ASEAN. China's immense influence over Cambodia economically and militarily has caused unease among ASEAN member states and external countries. Some analysts had expected Prime Minister Hun Sen to heed Beijing's preference regarding multiple issues in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia was able to rise above these doubts. On 13 November 2022, at the handover ceremony of the ASEAN chairmanship to Indonesia, Hun Sen highlighted ASEAN's achievements under Cambodia's leadership amid these extraordinarily challenging times. Phnom Penh managed to effectively leverage the chair's prerogative to shape the agenda and priorities of ASEAN, issue ASEAN chairman's statements when disagreement emerged over contentious issues, initiate foreign ministers’ statements in response to events and developments that affect regional peace and stability, and maintain a principled position on Russia's war in Ukraine that has been much applauded by the international community.