“东盟中心地位”一方面来自东盟自身的追求和认同，另一方面来自印太区域内其他相关国家或行为体的认可。其他国家或行为体认可东盟作为地区安全治理的关键支柱在维护地区和平与稳定方面发挥的重要作用。近20年来，中国政府一直强调支持东盟在区域合作中发挥“主导作用”，支持其“中心地位”。自奥巴马政府起，历届美国政府也都宣称支持“东盟中心地位”，但在面对中美战略竞争和印太地区国家间关系的现实时，“东盟中心地位”在美国和中国的政策及战略思维中的意涵实际上有很大差别。“东盟中心地位”能否继续为印太区域内各方所接受并对未来印太秩序的走向产生积极影响，将取决于多种因素。未来的印太秩序将在很大程度上取决于区域内各种行为体的力量对比和互动。
The ASEAN centrality，comes from ASEAN’s own pursuit and recognition on the one hand，and from the recognition of other relevant countries or actors in the Indo-Pacific region on the other. Other countries or actors recognize ASEAN’s important role in maintaining regional peace and stability as a key pillar of regional security governance. Over the past 20 years，Chinese government has been insistently claiming its support for ASEAN’s leading role and centrality in regional integration and regional institution development. The U.S. governments，from Barack Obama to Joe Biden，all claimed their support for ASEAN centrality. But under the background of Sino-U.S. strategic competition and the changing relationship among Indo-Pacific countries，the ASEAN centrality may have different meanings and strategic thinking for the U.S. and Chinese policies respectively. To what extent the ASEAN centrality can continue to be accepted by those Indo-Pacific countries or actors and play an active role in building Indo-Pacific order will depend on several factors. The future Indo-Pacific order will mainly depend to a large extent on the power balance and interaction of various actors in the region.
