<![CDATA[The implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership since 2022 has created a new institutional setting for economic integration in the Asia-Pacific and raised questions about its implications for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This study examines how implementation during 2022–2025 contributes to regional economic consolidation and shapes geoeconomic power relations. It uses qualitative document-based research drawing on scholarly publications, official agreements and policy documents, research reports, and institutional trade data. The research asks how common trade rules, market connectivity, and regional production networks affect economic consolidation, and how these changes influence regional power dynamics. The findings show that rule-of-origin harmonization, wider trade connectivity, and stronger regional value chains support a more coordinated economic structure, although gains remain uneven across member states. At the same time, deeper interdependence increases China’s economic centrality while preserving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ institutional role as the organizing hub of the agreement. The study concludes that the partnership operates simultaneously as an integration mechanism and a geoeconomic framework that redistributes influence through rules, markets, and production networks.]]>
Copyrights © 2026
