Quad adjusts towards ASEAN

ASEAN centrality challenged in September 2021: QUAD, the most powerful regional arrangement without ASEAN, held its second summit within a year on 24 September. (The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, aka The Quad, is a strategic security dialogue between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia.) Prior to this, a security alliance involving Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - Aukas - emerged on 16 September. All this was a clear move against China and caused panic among ASEAN countries, which had no coordinated response. Some welcomed it, some were vague and others feared it would escalate the US-China dispute….