Asia Pacific Roundtable Malaysian Minister: Maintaining Autonomy is Not Choosing Sides

(Central News Agency, Kuala Lumpur, July 1 -- Reporter Huang Tzu-chiang) The 39th Asia Pacific Roundtable kicked off today. Malaysian Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Johan Abdul Ghani, stated at the pre-conference welcome dinner that maintaining national autonomy is not about choosing sides, but about retaining the ability to make independent decisions and preserving strategic flexibility in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.

The 39th Asia Pacific Roundtable (APR) is being held in Kuala Lumpur from June 30 to July 2. This year's theme is "Accelerating Agency and Action," inviting government officials, scholars, think tanks, and business representatives from across the Asia-Pacific region to jointly discuss regional security, economic, and strategic issues amidst geopolitical shifts.

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) Johan Abdul Ghani, speaking at the welcome dinner last night, said that autonomy means diversifying partners, strengthening resilience, cultivating new capabilities, and preserving the strategic space needed to pursue national interests.

He pointed out that one of the most representative challenges today lies at the intersection of economics and geopolitics, and therefore it is essential to ensure this intersection brings "resilience, not fragmentation; security, not exclusivity; prosperity, not division."

He believes that traditionally, economic diplomacy has been closely linked to trade negotiations, market access, and investment promotion. Today, facing escalating geopolitical challenges, economic diplomacy must be viewed from a broader perspective, and foreign policy should serve as a platform for securing economic opportunities, strengthening resilience, supporting technological upgrades, promoting investment, and expanding national strategic options.

The Asia Pacific Roundtable is an annual conference hosted by ISIS Malaysia, and it is one of Southeast Asia's most representative Track II diplomacy forums, attracting over 300 participants. This year's attendees from Taiwan include Chen Chih-chieh, Deputy Director of the National Chengchi University's (NCCU) Graduate Institute of International Relations; Liu Fu-kuo, concurrently a research fellow at NCCU's Graduate Institute of International Relations; and Tso Cheng-tung, a professor in the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University.

The 39th Asia Pacific Roundtable continues the discussions from recent years on the restructuring of the international order, focusing on how countries can enhance their agency and action amidst rapid geopolitical changes to cope with the challenges of the global strategic environment.

The agenda covers topics such as "A World in Disorder -- The Struggle Between Power, Principles, and Pragmatism," "Sino-Indian Geopolitical Rivalry in the Global South," "Facing Reality -- Examining the Resilience and Effectiveness of the ASEAN Mechanism," "Nuclear Arms Race in the Asia-Pacific Powder Keg," and "Critical Minerals and Supply Chain Restructuring." It explores the future of multilateralism, the impact of Sino-Indian competition on the Indo-Pacific landscape, ASEAN mechanism reform, and the challenges posed by geopolitics to global supply chains and industrial layouts of chains and industrial layout. (Editor: Chen Hui-ping) 1150701

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