Author: Amitav Acharya, American University

After more than a year of deliberation, ASEAN adopted the ‘ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific’ (the Outlook’) on 23 June 2019. The Outlook then got an airing at the ASEAN Regional Forum meetings in Bangkok. The Outlook document ‘provides a guide for ASEAN’s engagement in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean regions’ and resembles an Indonesian-conceived plan.