Professional Education Lecture (PEL) delivered by Prof Shankari Sundararaman on ‘ASEAN and QUAD: Understanding the Role of Multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific’

Prof Shankari Sundararaman delivered the Professional Education Lecture (PEL) on ‘ASEAN and QUAD: Understanding the Role of Multilateralism in the Indo-Pacific’ at the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi, on Wednesday, 27 March 2024. The Session was chaired by the Director-General of the NMF, Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, AVSM & Bar, VSM, IN (Retd), who delivered the opening remarks.

In her lecture, Prof Sundararaman encapsulated the key indicators of the shift to the Indo-Pacific as a ‘mega-region’ and its implications for the countries of Southeast Asia and multilateral groupings like ASEAN.  She went on to trace the contours of the evolving regional security architecture, with “mini-orders,” such as the QUAD, driving the shift from the Asia-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific construct.  The lecture further delved into key issues, namely, the challenges facing multilateralism and its enduring salience with the return of great power rivalry to the region;  the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and areas for contemporary relevance; ASEAN’s perception of QUAD; the debate surrounding ‘ASEAN-centrality’ and the grouping’s efforts to manage the emergence of Quad; as well as the areas of convergence and divergence between ASEAN and the QUAD.

At the close of the session, Prof Sundararaman was presented  with a token of appreciation by the Director-General, VAdm Pradeep Chauhan, and was cordially invited to deliver another stimulating and thought-provoking lecture in the future.