The ASEAN summit in Malaysia was yet another crucial contribution to the increasing role that regionalism is playing in today's world economy
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
By Yaroslav Lissovolik
The ASEAN summit in Malaysia was yet another crucial contribution to the increasing role that regionalism is playing in today's world economy. It featured not only important milestones in ASEAN's own initiatives in regional integration, but also agreements and statements within the broader regional formats such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). ASEAN's centrality and ability to mediate disputes has also facilitated the narrowing of the trade disagreements between the US and China to be attained in the summit in Malaysia. Overall, the ASEAN summit this year has reaffirmed the bloc's rising prominence on the international arena and is a testament to the expediency of greater integration of regional organizations and trading arrangements into the evolving framework of global economic governance.
Across sectors the main focus for ASEAN was boosting economic cooperation in the sphere of digital economy. ASEAN reached an important landmark of the substantial conclusion of the negotiations on the first regional digital economy framework - the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). The agreement seeks to develop digital economic cooperation in such areas as "ASEAN Single Window, digital payment, data privacy and cross-border data transfer and ASEAN Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN);... [it also seeks to establish] forward-looking provisions that build upon ASEAN's existing digital trade commitments by including Cross-Border Data Flows, Electronic Payments, Personal Data Protection and align with the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Record".
DEFA also extends into "emerging areas such as Talent Mobility Cooperation, Cooperation on Emerging Technologies such as AI, Competition Policy; and Online Safety and Cybersecurity; and Source Code". The DEFA digital agreement opens the pathways to similar regional accords in the digital sphere to be pursued by other regional blocs - with time this could serve as a basis for multilateralizing such regional digital accords across the global economy. The DEFA regional accord that is expected to be signed in 2026 would also render global trade and the world economy more flexible in adapting to shocks associated with rising protectionism and disruptions in global value chains. Another track pursued in the summit was the China-ASEAN economic cooperation, with both sides signing the enhanced ASEAN-China 3.0 free trade agreement. This accord expands economic cooperation in areas such as environmental and sustainable development policy, digital economy and agriculture. This agreement may play an important role in further boosting South-South trade linkages and mitigating the challenges posed by rising global protectionism, including higher US tariffs.
Perhaps one of the most important events during the ASEAN summit was the 5th summit of the RCEP bloc, which includes all ASEAN members as well as China, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. With ASEAN expanding this year to include 11 members, the RCEP declaration also projected openness with respect to membership expansion, with the article 6 (ii) of the declaration vowing to "advance the accession process of applicants into the RCEP Agreement while ensuring that the standards of the RCEP Agreement are maintained". Like the BRICS group, RCEP is exploring the pathways to the bloc's institutionalization, seeking to "strengthen RCEP institutions, through the establishment of an effective RCEP Secretariat" (article 6(iv) of the declaration). In terms of the guiding principles of international cooperation, the RCEP declaration argued in favor of "open regionalism" (article 7) - an important signal on the constructive role that regionalism can play in the current global economic environment.
In the end, the ASEAN summit in Malaysia this year has demonstrated the potential and the versatility of the role of regional integration blocs in the world economy. The event featured a multiplicity of economic diplomacy tracks - from regional and bilateral discussions to issues and formats that related to the scale of the global economy. Such a multimodal and multipronged approach to international alliances and economic diplomacy that is predicated on building new platforms of economic cooperation may be taken on board by other regional blocs from the Global South as well as the BRICS+ platform. The latter may in particular explore how ASEAN's experience allows for advancing the "integration of integrations" format in the global economy by bringing together the regional integration arrangements as well as their key development institutions.
Yaroslav Lissovolik is Founder of BRICS+ Analytics.