PREVIOUSLY, we spoke about how the US and its allies were deploying strategic military assets to the Far Eastern region, leading to speculation that they were beefing up measures to counter an increasingly assertive China in the region. Now, let us look at how Malaysia and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) could move away from this potential conflict, by taking a firm stand on its neutrality since the Cold War era. The Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) is a proclamation made in 1971 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by the Foreign Ministers of the ASEAN member states including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The parties openly announced their intention to preserve Southeast Asia “free from any form or manner of foreign influence” and “broaden the areas of cooperation” in the declaration. Based on the Bandung Principles agreed upon at the 1955 Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was formall
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