Officially, economic matters topped the agenda at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, held earlier this month in Phnom Penh. In fact, the real issue was the organization's long-term survival. The summit produced the usual pledges of action on key issues, but the world is changing in ways that make mere rhetorical promises increasingly costly. ASEAN member states must make commitments -- and deliver on them -- if the institution is to have a future.
Two issues are critical for ASEAN member states, and both were on the agenda this time. The first is terrorism. To their credit, several ASEAN governments have acknowledged that international terrorism is a genuine threat to their national security. The bombings in Bali, Indonesia and Thailand in recent weeks should have awakened the two holdout governments to the fact that no nation is immune to this scourge. There is ample evidence that terrorist groups have created networks throughout the region; the U.S. claim that Southeast Asia is "the second front" in the war against terror is no exaggeration.
The leaders assembled in Phnom Penh pledged greater cooperation and promised not to be intimidated. Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia had already agreed to an antiterrorism pact that focuses on sharing intelligence, resources and personnel to fight terrorism. Thailand signed up at the Phnom Penh meeting. Brunei has said that it too will join, while Singapore, perhaps the country most concerned by the terrorist threat, has several bilateral agreements with ASEAN states. To send a message that they would not be cowed by terrorists, the leaders decided to hold their 2003 summit in Bali, where a bombing last month killed almost 200 people. It will take more than that show of courage to meet and defeat this deadly threat. It is not just ASEAN's credibility that is on the line, but the very survival of some of its member governments.