Comprehensive security: The strategic significance of RCEP

T HE weight and importance that Asia now has in the global economic system demands that leadership to defend and strengthen it must come from within the region. No one country can lead in Asia, where large powers there have divergent interests. But Asian collective leadership is critical to multilateral economic policy outcomes and ASEAN is core to securing it. East Asias economic agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), embeds structures for dialogue and cooperation at the highest level that have the potential to make collective Asian leadership in reinvigorating the global economic system a practical proposition. RCEPs institutionalisation can help in managing the dangers that now loom for the multilateral system. The nature of its structure and rules means that RCEP is positioned to encourage the development of Asia-wide positions and strategies that help defend the multilateral trading system and impact positively on the direction of global trade and commercial policy.