UK Ambassador to ASEAN Sarah Tiffin. — Photo courtesy of the UK Embassy in Việt Nam

Since becoming a dialogue partner of ASEAN just four years ago, the United Kingdom has made significant strides in supporting the regional bloc’s ambitions, across a range of priority areas.

At the ASEAN Future Forum, UK Ambassador to ASEAN Sarah Tiffin spoke with Việt Nam News reporter Anh Đức on the current achievements of the UK and ASEAN in their partnership, as well as the prospects of future cooperations.

How does the UK support the development of ASEAN’s future?

The UK became a dialogue partner with ASEAN just four years ago and we reached the first new dialogue partner for 25 years. As it's been a long time since ASEAN accepted a new dialogue partner, we were absolutely delighted.

We’re committed to working and partnering across all of ASEAN’s priorities, but particularly those where there's a real overlap between what ASEAN is trying to do and where the UK might have expertise, or the other way around, where the UK has a particular interest in learning from what's going on in ASEAN and from ASEAN’s expertise.

We have partnered with ASEAN to design and devise a number of programmes, which we're rolling out in support of, not just ASEAN’s priorities, but also the commitments that we've made in the plan of action that we've reached with ASEAN.

We are four years into that five-year plan of action and we are on track to meet over 80 per cent of the commitment in it, through these six programmes in particular. There’s one on economic integration, as there’s a real sense amongst the ASEAN leadership that the responses to the changing global environment have to be the region’s own economic integration and trade within the region. As we’re known, UK has a very strong financial services sector, we’re working with ASEAN on financial services.

We also have a programme supporting the advancement of girls in education at all stages. Under that programme, we've offered women in STEM scholarships to candidates from across ASEAN to study at two absolutely brilliant UK universities. The bulk of that programme is focused on foundational learning for young girls and children who find themselves excluded from school for one reason or another.

We also have a health security programme, which is just beginning to ramp up. There will be many partnerships between research specialists and experts in ASEAN and the UK.

We have a Green Transition Fund, which has also been a constant theme today. Additionally, we run a programme with UN Women, Canada and Korea on women in security.

The sixth programme is a new one, where we are working with Malaysia, particularly as chair, to develop a framework for ASEAN to harness the creative economy across the region. This isn't just about promoting ASEAN's culture but also about making it a real contributing factor to economic growth. The creative economy is a huge driver of growth in the British economy, and we're sharing our expertise in this area.

How is the UK supporting ASEAN’s efforts in peace and security, particularly through youth engagement?

I mentioned earlier that women, peace and security is one of our key programmes. When I joined, this was already underway, primarily led by UN Women, with support from the UK, Canada, and a few other partners. The original purpose of the programme was to support the development of the Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security. That has now been established, and in individual countries, there is ongoing work to translate that international action plan into tangible outcomes, including here in Việt Nam. We continue to support that work.

In addition to that, we partnered with the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation and brought together – not just women but also men – for a series of conferences to discuss aspects of women, peace and security. I emphasised this at the Women, Peace, and Security event preceding the ASEAN Future Forum. It’s important to recognise that the issue works both ways.

There are often challenges where sectors like armed forces and technology companies can be quite male-dominated and it is essential to bring more women into these fields. However, when discussing women, peace and security, it’s not just an issue for women but for the whole of society. The training sessions we delivered led to really engaging discussions.

Regarding youth, which you asked about specifically, that is a new aspect of our work on peace and security. You might have heard a couple of young people intervening at the ASEAN Future Forum. They gave a fantastic presentation on Wednesday at the pre-event on Women, Peace, and Security. We brought together a group of young people from all ASEAN countries just last week to discuss youth, peace and security in a rapidly changing digital world. As technology evolves, we explore the opportunities for bringing youth voices into peace and security discussions and examine the potential risks.

They came up with some excellent suggestions, which they presented at the pre-event. We genuinely hope that we have helped foster connections between these inspiring young people. One of them even asked a question during the session, which takes real courage when speaking in front of leaders.

We hope we’ve planted the seed of a group that will stay connected and continue to think about how to advance youth, peace, and security. It is a newer area of thought and research compared to women, peace, and security and perhaps less well-established. However, we are truly excited to have the opportunity to work with young people across ASEAN to explore how ASEAN can build on its work in youth, peace and security.

It is known that the UK is a member of the G7, with common priorities focusing on combating climate change, managing the rapid advancement of science and technology, and building an economy that benefits all nations. In light of this year’s ASEAN Future Forum agenda, what are the shared goals and key differences in the long-term vision and objectives of the G7 and ASEAN?

In many ways, the similarities between these multilateral forums are more apparent than the differences. Both are elements of the multilateral world, where countries come together to discuss the key challenges we all face. The same overarching issues will often appear on the agenda of any multilateral organisation, whether that’s the United Nations, the G7 or ASEAN.

We all, in our different groups and contexts, are discussing major global issues like climate change, the impact of increasing digitalisation on the world, security concerns and how to maintain the economic growth that is essential for all countries.

I suppose the main difference is that the G7, when it convenes, tends to approach these issues on a global scale. In contrast, ASEAN's focus is on positioning the region within the global context to ensure ASEAN thrives, prospers and maintains its centrality in terms of peace and security. It's crucial to have both of these perspectives.

Both the G7 and ASEAN operate within a world underpinned by an agreed rules-based international system. That system is built on countries coming together to agree on the best way forward, whether in the G7 or other multilateral settings. This approach is a critical contribution to global stability.

Notably, during our G7 presidency in 2021, we were the first country to invite ASEAN to join the G7. This decision underlines how important we believe it is to connect regional and global levels of dialogue and cooperation. — VNS