Linking the Chinese dream to ASEAN

Since 2002 China has been one of the top three trading partners of ASEAN, with two-way trade reaching $400 billion last year - it is expected to hit $500 billion in 2015 - from a meager $55 billion a decade ago. The upgrade of the ASEAN-China Free Trade agreement will further promote bilateral trade, which on average has increased by 20 percent a year, making ASEAN China's fastest growing trading group.

China is also promoting a tripartite free trade arrangement with Japan and South Korea. Despite showing some enthusiasm toward the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership in recent weeks, China's top priority is still the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, for which negotiations have already begun.

Last year, China-ASEAN relations reached an all-time low in terms of trust because of the disagreement over how best to proceed with the COC amid growing confrontation. Earlier, China's position was quite simple: the situation is not ripe for a COC. And the lack of progress on a COC trumped other positive aspects of their friendship.

However, with a new leadership in Beijing and a new ASEAN chair, Brunei, China and ASEAN have been able to overcome past mistrust. Brunei has forged a new consensus, painstakingly weaving the interests of ASEAN member states. Both sides will now start the COC drafting process.

Earlier, ASEAN wanted a draft that it had prepared with key points to be included in the COC before presenting it to China for comments and amendments, which for China was the most contentious issue. But now, instead of working unilaterally, China and ASEAN will work in tandem both at the official and informal levels.

The four meetings in the fall - two each in Bangkok and in Beijing - at working-group and ministerial levels will zero in on establishing a working modality. The forthcoming special ASEAN-China ministerial meeting, to be hosted by Beijing at the end of August to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership, will take a fresh look at China-ASEAN relations. This will set forth the direction of the COC process leading to the China-ASEAN senior officials' meeting on the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in Beijing in September.

It is interesting to see that give-and-take and more consultative endeavors have emerged in the past few months and are gaining strength after the release of the communiqu of ASEAN foreign ministers early this month, which touched on the situation in South China Sea. It stressed their common desire to see the COC process move forward.

Beyond the non-economic and social spheres, it remains to be seen how the Chinese and ASEAN dreams will interact and play themselves out at the regional level in reducing tensions further in a tangible way. After all, China and ASEAN share the same desire for peace and prosperity.

The author is assistant group editor of The Nation in Thailand.