ASEAN Vision 2045: What Does It Hold for Our Shared Future?

H.E. Buensuceso has served in the Philippine Foreign Service for more than four decades. Before her current role, she served as the Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs and held various assignments overseas, including as the Permanent Representative of the Philippines to ASEAN, and as the Philippine Ambassador to the Lao PDR, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. In recognition of her service, Ambassador Buensuceso was awarded the Presidential Grand Cross, Gawad Kamanong, rank of Commander in 2017. Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Buensuceso was a lecturer at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

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AF: Thank you for agreeing to share your insights on the Post-2025 ACV, Ambassador Buensuceso. The ACV 2025 was adopted a decade ago during the 27th ASEAN Summit, also under Malaysia’s Chairmanship. The document charted the path for the creation of a politically cohesive, economically integrated, and socially responsible ASEAN Community. How would you assess the progress and state of Community-building today?

Ambassador Buensuceso: The previous ACV 2025 comprised the Blueprints of ASEAN’s three Community pillars – Political-Security, Economic, and Socio-Cultural – as well as the Kuala Lumpur Declaration. In 2015, each of the Community pillars undertook evaluation exercises to assess whether they had achieved the goals they set. In general, all pillars and the ASEAN connectivity agenda reported performance ranging from very good to excellent and I agree with these assessments. We have attained a certain level of integration and a sense of community in many ways. But the goals set by the previous HLTF might not correlate with what ordinary ASEAN citizens have in mind. Moreover, the ASEAN we see today is markedly different from the grouping in 2015. The region now sees itself not only as a major regional player but also as an influential participant in global affairs. These evolving dynamics were central considerations in the development of the ACV 2045.

AF: The ACV 2045 that was adopted at the 46th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur has a longer timeframe than its predecessor. Could you share more about the ACV 2045’s formulation process and the key factors considered when developing such a forward-looking document?

Ambassador Buensuceso: First, let me give credit where it is due. The HLTF on the Post-2025 ACV was the overall supervising body that sought to oversee the development of the ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future, a compendium that includes the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the ACV 2045 and its accompanying documents. It was also responsible for negotiating and finalising the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Strategic Plan. The other Strategic Plans were negotiated and finalised by the respective Working Groups or Task Forces of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), and the ASEAN Connectivity Coordinating Committee.

The ASEAN of the future will be confronted with megatrends and riveting issues, particularly escalating big-power rivalries, trade wars, the surging influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in every aspect of life, social and cultural complications such as aging populations, the rise of marginalised sectors, migration, and myriads of other problems. In this context, the first question considered by the HLTF in the formulation of the ACV 2045 was the identification of these megatrends and challenges and how ASEAN can effectively address them. The groups working on the three Community pillars and ASEAN Connectivity viewed the challenges from their respective points.

The ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s State of Southeast Asia 2025 Survey highlights the region elites’ persistent criticisms levelled against ASEAN as an ineffective, slow-moving regional institution that has not been able to find solutions to age-old issues such as the South China Sea and the Myanmar conundrum. The HLTF that crafted the Post-2025 ACV was mindful of the expectations from the leaders and people of ASEAN. Thus, one of the first tasks it set itself to accomplish was to identify sixteen megatrends and issues confronting our region. The drafters took pains consulting various stakeholders, particularly those from marginalised groups and sectors to make the process inclusive. 

Finally, the HLTF set its eyes far into the 20-year future and adopted a strategic approach in addressing these challenges. Despite this long timeframe, the ACV 2045 makes way for periodic reviews and updates to address the specific needs of each pillar. The group working on the Community pillars adapted a monitoring and evaluation framework best suited for the qualitative assessment of their accomplishment.

AF: Could you elaborate more about the implementation of the ACV 2045?

Ambassador Buensuceso: At the 46th ASEAN Summit held in Kuala Lumpur on 26 May 2025, ASEAN Leaders launched ACV 2045: Our Shared Future along with its five accompanying documents: the APSC Strategic Plan, AEC Strategic Plan, ASCC Strategic Plan, and the ASEAN Connectivity Strategic Plan. Each Strategic Plan outlines strategic goals, objectives, measures, and specific activities designed to achieve the stated aims. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Chair of ASEAN for 2025, described the Vision as one ‘anchored in realism, animated by resolve, and made possible by trust.’ Meanwhile, the incoming Chair, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, pledged to use it as a vehicle to realise an ASEAN that is secure, peaceful, and stable, governed by the rule of law, and both prosperous and resilient.  

The AEC Strategic Plan has six strategic goals including the ambition to realise an integrated single market and production base and engendering a climate-responsive sustainable community attuned to emerging trends and developments.

The ASCC Strategic Plan has twelve strategic goals, among others, to promote a people-centered, people-oriented community bound by a shared ASEAN ownership and identity, promoting a participatory, inclusive, sustainable and socially cohesive community, and ensuring shared prosperity, especially among vulnerable groups. All three Community pillars vow to promote a shared ASEAN identity and a sense of belonging.

Lastly, the ASEAN Connectivity Strategic Plan has six strategic goals that include sustainable infrastructure, smart and sustainable urban development, digital innovation, seamless logistics and supply chain, regulatory excellence and people-to-people connectivity.

Like the conscientious midwives depicted in my earlier article, the HLTF reminds future implementers of the Strategic Plans to ensure seamless coordination of the cross-pillar and cross-sectoral issues, and highlights the need to continue developing specific activities to implement the plans, ensuring that ASEAN continues its institutional strengthening and develops a communication and outreach plan to cascade the Vision to all stakeholders.

AF: What developments occurred between the initial drafting phase in 2022 and the eventual adoption of the ACV 2045 in 2025? Were there any proposals or topics that had to be excluded due to a lack of consensus among Member States?

Ambassador Buensuceso: One of the earliest accomplishments of the HLTF was the submission of the Recommendations Paper on Strengthening ASEAN’s Capacity and Institutional Effectiveness to the ASEAN Summit of 2022. These institutional issues include strengthening the capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat and the funding of ASEAN.

The Philippine Representation had proposed a revision of the ASEAN Charter, citing the provision in the Charter itself for such a change and the need to address structural and organisational deficiencies in ASEAN. This includes addressing cross-pillar and cross-sectoral issues, which were one of the most neglected concerns in the past. Most Member States did not favour this radical proposal, particularly as it might affect the implementation of Article 20, which refers to the decision-making process, perhaps fearing that it would lead to drastic measures against any Member State. Instead, the HLTF proposed to the leaders a review of the decision-making process of ASEAN in emergency situations.

Another early accomplishment of the HLTF was the issuance in 2022 of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045: Dynamic, Innovative, Responsive and People-Centered ASEAN, which contained the core elements that would later guide the drafting of the Strategic Plans.      

AF: How does the tenet of ASEAN Centrality feature in the ACV 2045?

Ambassador Buensuceso: All four pillars cite adherence to ASEAN Centrality as the antidote to all the major trends and shocks that threaten the goals and objectives set forth in the ACV 2045. ASEAN Centrality in this sense includes seizing the agenda of global and regional discourse, setting the norms and pace of cooperation and seeing to it that the principles of inclusivity, peaceful settlement of disputes and adherence to a rules-based international order, are followed. ASEAN has insisted on realigning the series of regional strategies and frameworks, for example, the various Indo-Pacific strategies, Regional Security Architecture (RSA) frameworks, and the Global Security Initiative (GSI) with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). This is a clear assertion of ASEAN Centrality. These elements of ASEAN Centrality are depicted in my book, entitled ASEAN Centrality: An Autoethnographic Account by a Philippine Diplomat.

How ASEAN can sustain this in all its four communities in the coming years will remain to be seen as it embarks on a new chapter in its existence as a driving force in regional and global cooperation.

AF: With the ACV 2045 now adopted, what are your hopes for the Philippines’ Chairmanship next year in driving its implementation and carrying this effort forward?

Ambassador Buensuceso: The Philippine Chairmanship in 2026 is crucial in the sense that ASEAN must bring the ACV 2045: Our Shared Future to the stakeholders it intends to serve. Although the HLTF, in the process of crafting the documents, undertook several consultations with these stakeholders including youth, women, business leaders, and others, ASEAN should cascade the whole final compendium back to them in order to encourage them to participate in the implementation of the action lines in all the pillars. As the saying goes, the test of the pudding is in the eating. It will be during the Philippines’ ASEAN Chairmanship when this first taste will be experienced by the people of Member States. This is not to say that the fare to be offered will be experimental and tentative. Hundreds of action lines have already been carefully and thoughtfully prepared by all the Community pillars. The Philippines’ ASEAN Chairmanship will roll out the first batch of these activities to achieve the strategic goals envisioned. 

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Editor’s Note:
ASEANFocus+ articles are timely critical insight pieces published by the ASEAN Studies Centre.