I will begin with Asean in the context of South-east Asia as a region. What is this region? Because that is, to me, central to the whole story.

Asean and South-east Asia - the two names are often taken together. But I think we should be very clear that they are very different in many ways. When we talk about South-east Asia, we all know which are the countries we refer to. But for thousands of years while the region has been there, it never had one single identity.