The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), which focuses on four areas of collaboration spanning maritime, connectivity, Sustainable Development Goals, economic, and other prospective sectors of cooperation, was launched by the regional bloc in Bangkok in 2019.
The focus of the outlook is maritime cooperation, which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations emphasizes further in the inaugural edition of the ASEAN Maritime Outlook (AMO) released in early August.
AMO – arguably ASEAN’s next step in making its Indo-Pacific moves more decisive – is a neatly drafted policy document covering maritime issues in sync with ASEAN’s institutional architectures and serves as a policy directive for the regional bloc’s leaders, policymakers, sectoral bodies, and dialogue partners in evaluating the current and upcoming challenges managed by various sectoral bodies.
With AMO, ASEAN makes clear its commitment to dive deeper into maritime cooperation and explore avenues for technical and financial aid to enhance capacities of its member states. As if fitting into a puzzle, ASEAN’s needs reverberate with the security arrangement of one of its strategic partners, the European Union.
The EU in the most recent update of its Maritime Security Strategy (EUMSS) focuses on six enhanced objectives. One of them is to boost hybrid and cyber security qualifications among civilians, especially among its non-EU partners, by educating and training them in specific training programs.
After all, the EU has quite an outstanding reputation for maintaining and contributing to maritime security in the Asian hemisphere thanks to the success of its “Operation Atalanta” launched in 2008 to fight pirates in the Gulf of Aden alongside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other East Asian countries through joint exercises, diplomacy, and capacity-building.
Second, if cyber-maritime cooperation were to get more institutionalized between the two most important regional organizations, it would not be the first time that both delved into cyber-related collaboration in the cybersecurity domain.
The EU and ASEAN previously launched the 2019 EU-ASEAN Statement on Cybersecurity Cooperation, marking the long-term commitment of both sides to shore up cybersecurity development, exchange of best practices and promote cyber-literacy and norms across multiple channels and activities.
Source : Asia Times
