With a shifting geopolitical landscape, Southeast Asia again finds itself in between competing great powers. Part of ASEAN’s reason for being was to develop regional resilience against great power interference. How will the organisation manage the coming challenges and how will individual countries ensure their national security in an era of complexity and uncertainty?

In this public seminar leading Southeast Asian journalists Seti Dewi, Pham Quynh Trung and Arvind Jayaram will provide a view from Southeast Asia. The presenters will speak on the challenges confronting their own countries along with the regional perspective through an ASEAN lens. What are the attitudes towards the US and China within their own countries, how is the digital media impacting political discourse and where do they see the future of ASEAN leading?

Sita Dewi (Indonesia) Sita is the Deputy Editor on the national desk at prominent independent English newspaper, The Jakarta Post. With her fellow editors, Sita leads a desk of talented millennial reporters to plan, execute, and subsequently curate stories which cover various issues, mainly politics, law and human rights, environment, public health, and education in Indonesia. With more than 10 years of journalism experience, both in print and broadcast media, Sita has covered national politics, bureaucratic reform, international relations and public policy. In 2015 she was a recipient of an Australia Awards Scholarship and undertook a Masters of Asia Pacific Studies at ANU.

Pham Quynh Trung (Vietnam) Pham is the Head of International News at the most widely read print newspaper in Vietnam, Tuoi Tre (Youth) Newspaper. In previous roles, Pham was the newspaper’s leading foreign affairs reporter, where he covered ASEAN and socio-economic issues.

Arvind Jayaram (Singapore) Arvind is a senior journalist on the Foreign Desk at Singapore’s The Strait Times, one of Asia’s largest and most influential newspapers, reporting on a broad range of international and regional issues. Arvind has 10 years journalism experience in print, digital and radio in Singapore and India, including at The Hindu paper’s Business Line and the Press Trust of India.

This event is free and open to the public