[Title] Joint Statement of the 28th ASEAN-Japan Summit on Further Promotion and Implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)

Joint Statement of the 28th ASEAN-Japan Summit on Further Promotion and Implementation of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)

WE, the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan, on the occasion of the 28th ASEAN-Japan Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 26 October 2025;

ACKNOWLEDGING that global and regional challenges are becoming more interconnected and multidimensional, and REAFFIRMING our commitment to promoting an enabling environment for peace, stability and prosperity in the region as well as our efforts to address common challenges, and to promoting closer economic and sociocultural cooperation as well as continuing cooperation to narrow the development gap in ASEAN;

EMPHASISING the importance of peace, stability and prosperity in the region and of the open, inclusive, transparent, resilient, and rules-based regional architecture, and REAFFIRMING our commitment to upholding international law, including the Charter of the United Nations and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), values and norms enshrined in the ASEAN Charter, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and the 2011 Declaration of the East Asia Summit on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations (Bali Principles), and the shared fundamental principles in the AOIP and Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP);

ACKNOWLEDGING the growing importance of upholding the AOIP's core principles, and REAFFIRMING our unwavering support for the objectives and principles of the AOIP in support of ASEAN Centrality and unity;

RECOGNISING ASEAN's determination in shaping and leading the evolving regional architecture that is built upon ASEAN-led mechanisms and ensuring that geopolitical and geostrategic shifts will continue to bring about, and not disrupt, peace, security, stability and prosperity for peoples in the Southeast Asia as well as the Indo-Pacific;

RECOGNISING that the AOIP is a key framework for ASEAN's engagement with its external partners, and ACKNOWLEDGING that the AOIP has grown into a common platform for maintaining and strengthening an open, transparent, resilient, inclusive and rules-based regional architecture that upholds international law;

UNDERSCORING the growing presence of ASEAN as the epicentre of growth in the Indo-Pacific, and AFFIRMING that the promotion and implementation of the AOIP will also contribute to promoting an international order based on the rule of law and a rules-based Indo-Pacific that is free and open, embraces key principles such as ASEAN Centrality and unity, inclusiveness, transparency and complements ASEAN community building process;

APPRECIATING that Japan was the first to express full support for the AOIP and to adopt the 2020 Joint Statement of the 23rd ASEAN-Japan Summit on Cooperation on the AOIP with ASEAN which has played an important role in broadening support for the AOIP among ASEAN's external partners, and has contributed to the AOIP in a wide variety of ASEAN's priority areas as outlined in the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on the AOIP for the Future-Ready ASEAN and ASEAN-Centred Regional Architecture adopted in October 2024;

REAFFIRMING that both the AOIP and the FOIP share relevant fundamental principles in promoting an open, transparent, resilient, inclusive, and rules-based regional architecture that upholds international law and in maintaining peace, stability, freedom and prosperity, and WELCOMING Japan's efforts to promote cooperation rather than division and confrontation through the FOIP;

REAFFIRMING our commitment to strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that is meaningful, substantive, and mutually beneficial, as articulated in the Joint Statement on the Establishment of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership adopted in 2023, and ACKNOWLEDGING Japan's full support for the ASEAN Community Vision 2045; and

BUILDING ON the shared vision in the Joint Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation adopted by the Leaders of ASEAN and Japan in Tokyo in 2023;

DO HEREBY DECLARE, AS TRUSTED PARTNERS, TO:

１. FURTHER PROMOTE, MAINSTREAM AND IMPLEMENT the AOIP to maintain and enhance peace, stability, and prosperity in the region while upholding and promoting the rule of law at the international level;

２. SUPPORT the ASEAN Community Vision 2045 and its four Strategic Plans, and the 2024 ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on the AOIP for the Future-Ready ASEAN and ASEAN-Centred Regional Architecture, which include the aim of pursuing the implementation of the AOIP to enhance win-win cooperation and to promote mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual benefit, while maintaining ASEAN Centrality and unity to achieve a future-ready ASEAN;

３. COMMIT to undertaking substantive, practical and tangible cooperation through concrete projects under the AOIP's four priority areas of maritime cooperation, connectivity, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, and economic and other possible areas of cooperation through ASEAN-led mechanisms such as ASEAN-Japan, ASEAN Plus Three (APT), the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus), and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum (EAMF) as well as the AOIP Vision Group Conference and in the various frameworks and cooperation initiatives in which both Japan and ASEAN participate, contributing to the shared objectives and principles of the AOIP and the FOIP;

４. DEEPEN dialogue and cooperation with other external partners and organisations towards the realisation of an open regional architecture capable of adapting to changes and new dynamism to promote complementarity and synergy in the Indo-Pacific towards promoting and implementing concrete AOIP projects and activities that contribute to fundamental principles shared by the AOIP and the FOIP, and PROMOTE complementarity of the efforts to mainstream the AOIP with sub-regional development cooperation frameworks, utilising continued cooperation to narrow the development gap in ASEAN through the implementation of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Work Plan V, economic corridors, special economic zones, and sub-regional cooperation;

５. EXPAND the horizon of the AOIP cooperation, building on the full and effective implementation of the Implementation Plan of the Joint Vision Statement on ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation, which encompasses 130 items of comprehensive cooperation, and advancing initiatives, including Partnership to Co-create a Future with the Next Generation: WA Project 2.0, Networked Exchange, United Strength for Stronger Partnerships between Japan and ASEAN (NEXUS), ASEAN-Japan Economic Co-creation Vision, Japan-ASEAN Comprehensive Connectivity Initiative, Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC), Strategic Program for ASEAN Climate and Environment (SPACE) 2025, ASEAN-Japan Work Plan on Disaster Management, ASEAN-Japan MIDORI Cooperation Plan, Japan-ASEAN Ministerial Initiative for Enhanced Defense Cooperation (JASMINE), and the ASEAN-Japan Work Plan on Law and Justice;

６. ENSURE the effective and transparent implementation of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, which contribute to the AOIP, to promote cross-border trade and investment that benefit the business sectors and to strengthen the economic ties between ASEAN and Japan; and

７. EXPAND cooperation, in line with the AOIP, in addressing global challenges beyond the region to promote peace, stability and prosperity by capitalising on this region's growing presence.

ADOPTED in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this Twenty-Sixth Day of October in the Year Two Thousand and Twenty-Five.