14.05.2020
On May 14th the ASEAN Centre held the webinar focused on the epidemiological situation in Southeast Asia, ASEAN responses to COVID-19 and perspectives of the region in the post-COVID-19 period.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Carlos Tabunda, Director of the New Era University-ASEAN Studies Center in Manila and host of the weekly television program “ASEAN Hour” on Net 25 TV channel. The subsequent discussion was joined by Dr. Victor Sumsky, Director of MGIMO’s ASEAN Centre, Prof. Evgeny Kanaev of the Higher School of Economics, young Philippine academics and delegates of the recent Russia–ASEAN Youth Summits Mr. Jonh Paul Mandejar (De la Salle University) and Mr. Kritzman Caballero (Ateneo de Manila University). A number of MGIMO and Far Eastern Federal University students majoring in Southeast Asian studies also contributed to the webinar. The event was moderated by Dr. Ekaterina Koldunova, ASEAN Centre’s Senior Expert.
Dr. Tabunda presented an overview of the latest COVID-19 statistics in the ASEAN area and the measures taken by the governments to arrest the pandemic. He also drew attention to the results of the Online Special ASEAN and ASEAN+3 Summits on COVID-19 in April 2020, including the proposal to establish ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund. While sharing his view on the subject of the US-China tensions, the speaker emphasized that in this situation ASEAN is not going to take sides and will follow its core principle of operating by consensus.
During the Q&A period Dr. Tabunda and his listeners shared their views on how the regional images and reputations of the US and China are changing in the midst of the pandemic. In this context, the uncertain future of several transregional cooperation initiatives was discussed as well.