Asean’s quiet resilience

American snub: Only US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien turned up at the recent Asean meeting in Thailand. - AP

ITS culture of accommodation and pragmatism has proven to be a source of strength in a year marked by growing United States-China tensions.

Asean should have begun to crack and fall apart from the strain of the rising geopolitical rivalries in Asia between the United States and China, if what critics say about its fragility were true.