South Korea is appointing a
resident ambassador to ASEAN, according to the Chosun
Ilbo. Baek Seong-taek, the
ambassador for international affairs in Busan, will take his post in July. Korea will thus become the third country to
appoint a resident ambassador, after the United States and Japan.
That South Korea would
appoint a resident ambassador is not too much of a surprise, since the country
has an FTA with ASEAN, and Korea is an active ASEAN + 3 member. Japan, another ASEAN +3 member, already has
a resident ambassador.
And the third ASEAN + 3
member? That would be China, which has announced plans to appoint a resident
ambassador. The fact that China’s
resident ambassador is still a work-in-progress may be linked to the current
South China Sea dispute at the Scarborough Shoals. Perhaps China does not want to encourage an
ASEAN-centric approach by appointing a resident ambassador whose initial work
schedule would be dominated by the issue.
China
would rather focus the agenda for its ASEAN mission on economic and development
issues, which motivated appointing a resident ambassador in the first place
despite the concerns about regionalizing the South China Sea dispute.
Thus, China will likely wait
for the situation to become calmer, and just as importantly, for the Chinese
communist party leadership succession to be completed, before appointing a
resident ambassador to ASEAN. However, making that diplomatic step will mean
that China must face both the economic and the political dimensions of its
engagement with ASEAN on a daily basis, not just on the travel schedules of its
senior diplomats.
