Jakarta. The ongoing political and economic tensions between China and the United States could significantly impact the global economy and pose considerable challenges, especially for ASEAN which has collectively positioned both countries as key economic partners, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati during a regional gathering on Friday. 

Addressing her ASEAN counterparts and central bank governors from the region in Jakarta, Sri Mulyani noted that the global geopolitical tension has continued to escalate since their previous meeting in Bali in March.

“The tension between the United States and China … is particularly felt by all of us. This could cause the world to become even more fragmented,” she said.

“Any tension between the world's two largest economies will definitely have implications not only to those two counties but also to the rest of the world and especially to our region.”

With the ongoing "deglobalization" driven by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Sri Mulyani advised ASEAN countries to bolster their ties, collaboration, and engagement to ensure sustainable growth.

“Together as a region, ASEAN economies are also poised to further strengthen its strategic position and the centrality of ASEAN in working with all partner countries to foster trade and investment and also other economic engagement in the region for the benefit of ASEAN and the world,” she said.

Describing the meeting as the "highest decision-making forum within our sectoral body," she underlined the need to focus on long-term accomplishments to establish ASEAN's relevance beyond its regional community.

"We will spend most of our time today in strategic policy discussions related to global issues, regional economic outlook and challenges and some of the thematic agenda on promoting infrastructure financing and transition finance in the region," Sri Mulyani said.

“We come from different countries with different domestic economic conditions, but we manage to make progress and also strengthen our cooperation to achieve many objectives.”

Sri Mulyani encouraged participants to forge closer coordination, enabling swift and effective collective actions in response to changes in global and regional economic developments.

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