Cambodian analysts said they see ASEAN playing an important role in the world order as many world leaders are set to arrive in Cambodia for the ASEAN summit and related meetings on November 10-13, before heading to two more summits in Southeast Asia.

To give just one example, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said on November 2 that Trudeau will participate in the ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh as well as the G20 Summit happening later in Bali, Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand – a busy schedule that many leaders attending the summit in Cambodia are also following this year.

Trudeau will be in Cambodia on November 12-13. The press statement from his office said that he will address regional and global challenges with his counterparts in ASEAN and the broader Indo-Pacific region, including the ASEAN-Canada Commemorative Summit to mark the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-Canada diplomatic relations.

“Under the ASEAN Summit’s theme of “Addressing Challenges Together”, the prime minister will promote regional peace and stability, rules-based trade, economic growth that benefits everyone, and strong ties between our peoples,” the statement said.

Trudeau and many of the other leaders will then attend the G20 Summit on November 15-16, where he will meet with partners to advance shared priorities under this year’s theme of "Recover Together, Recover Stronger", including solutions to food and energy insecurity, climate change, and health his office stated.

At the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 18, Trudeau will reaffirm Canada’s commitment to open economic cooperation and removal of trade barriers in the Indo-Pacific region to benefit people on both sides of the Pacific, the statement said.

Kin Phea, director of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia said that the presence of world leaders at the ASEAN summit, G20 and APEC reflects the importance of the ASEAN region in the eyes of the world amid a heated geopolitical contest between the US and China.

He further noted that this also shows how far the Kingdom has come in developing its diplomatic and organisational skills as Cambodia is the ASEAN chair this year and is executing its duty to host the summit.

“It shows Cambodia’s ability to handle all of this facilitation to prepare countless documents and administer the meetings through its human resources while providing world class services and security, which has given world leaders confidence that it is safe to come here,” he said.

Phea said Canada is a partner with ASEAN on human resource building and natural resource protection and it is allied with the western nations led by the US who are following their Indo-Pacific strategy to try and slow or prevent the spread of China’s influence.

“The three summits are so vital in terms of politics, economics, security and socio-cultural exchanges, which countries in the region can all benefit from. These meetings are also a political gateway for discussion of heated global issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war, Korean peninsula issues, energy, the food crisis, the South China Sea dispute, Taiwan Strait tensions, global inflation, the crisis in Myanmar and other non-traditional security issues such as climate change, global warming, environmental pollution and more,” Phea said.

Similarly, Yang Peou, secretary-general of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said that progress in the ASEAN bloc had attracted increasing interest in the region from the world’s leading powers and the globalization of ASEAN’s outlook is what has allowed it to play host to world summits that will engage in some discussion of global issues.

“We can say, in short, that ASEAN has become an important part of the world order and from now on ASEAN should use its influence and should play its part in setting that world order,” he said.