When globalism weakens, can regionalism step up?
26/12/2025
Woo Says: ASEAN’s Big Tent | Inclusion, Interests, and Influence
This episode of #WooSays is part of a special two-part series on the 47th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits under the theme “Inclusivity and Sustainability”.
In this first part, Professor Emeritus Datuk Woo Wing Thye and Melisa Idris unpack what inclusivity really means for ASEAN in 2025. From the inclusion of Timor-Leste as the bloc’s 11th member to the KL Accord ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, and a new tariff agreement between US and Malaysia, is ASEAN’s growing web of relationships truly mutually beneficial? Prof Woo also shares his bold ideas on which countries ASEAN could, or should, include next, and why expanding the bloc might be key to its future relevance.
In this first part, Professor Emeritus Datuk Woo Wing Thye and Melisa Idris unpack what inclusivity really means for ASEAN in 2025. From the inclusion of Timor-Leste as the bloc’s 11th member to the KL Accord ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, and a new tariff agreement between US and Malaysia, is ASEAN’s growing web of relationships truly mutually beneficial? Prof Woo also shares his bold ideas on which countries ASEAN could, or should, include next, and why expanding the bloc might be key to its future relevance.