How Relevant is North-South Cooperation in the Conventional and Unconventional Maritime Domain of Asia?

Quite contrary to the belief that South-South cooperation supplements North-South cooperation, it is not yet in a position to replace it in any significant way. In fact, there are still a lot of North-South development cooperation projects with signs that northern partners are overtly willing to transform unequal North-South engagement partnerships into what is now often referred to as ‘true partnerships’. Denmark's historical cooperation ties with South Africa, for instance, are now narrowing in on the clean energy sector, with an agreement signed on 4 March 2013 between the two governments, whereby Denmark has given its commitment to help South Africa achieve low carbon economic growth by 2020. The Americans, who took the lead in promoting development cooperation projects in developing countries, way back in 1949 through President Truman's ‘Bold New Program,’ have openly shifted their ‘pivot’ from Middle East to Asia in the present century through “increased investment”—diplomatic, economic and strategic, in an attempt to reassure ‘old allies’ that Washington will always stand by while reinforcing its commitment to actively engage with the region through multilateral organizations. In the maritime arena, for instance, the US unequivocally came down on side of the ASEAN members, party to the conventional South China Sea dispute, by openly criticizing Chinese assertiveness, by holding military exercises with Vietnam and the Philippines and affirming the capability of the US-Philippine alliance in the South China Sea arena. Washington is playing the pivotal role in chalking out the most comprehensive and far-reaching trade and investment agreement involving Asia-Pacific states, the Trans Pacific Partnership, that has swelled from four to 11 members presently. In tackling unconventional security threat problems like sea piracy and maritime terrorism, the US has undertaken several initiatives with littoral countries of Southeast Asia and India, well reflective of the growing maturity in North-South cooperation projects in the 21st century. The present paper is an attempt to examine the North-South cooperative projects in the maritime domain of Southeast Asia where the 10-membered Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have welcomed USA's ‘pivot’ to Asia as counterbalance against an aggressive China, and the “ASEAN Way,” “Asian Way,” or “Asia Pacific Way” of multilateralism,” that involves conscious rejection by Asian leaders and policy elites of “imported models” of multilateralism and their call for liberalism that conforms to local realities and practices.