Kuala Lampur, Dec. 2 -- Natural disasters across Southeast Asia in November 2025 have delivered a sobering message: Asean cannot handle the next decade alone.

Barely weeks after the Asean and Related Summits concluded, the region was struck by severe monsoon floods in Thailand, cyclones in the Philippines, landslides in Vietnam, and rising flood risks in Malaysia.

The scale is frightening because the pattern is no longer episodic-it is systemic. Weather disruptions are arriving in unrelenting cycles, stretching national disaster infrastructures beyond their limits.

If there was ever a moment for Asean to rethink the meaning of partnership, it is now.

And no partnership has been as misunderstood-yet as valuable-as the one Asean shares ...