After months of promising to upgrade ties with South-east Asia, South Korean President Moon Jae In has personally delivered the message to the region in a week-long, three-country tour that showed he meant business.

Throughout his visit to Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, Mr Moon repeatedly emphasised his vision to “dramatically strengthen” cooperation with ASEAN with a strong focus on three Ps – people-centred exchanges, peaceful co-existence and joint prosperity.

Mr Shawn Ho, associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told The Straits Times that Mr Moon had made a “very good move” to head to ASEAN’s biggest economy, Indonesia, first.

He also noted that the two countries’ leaders issued a long and extensive joint statement – 1,710 words to be exact – that detailed the future of their collaboration across various sectors, from defence and infrastructure development to tourism and petrochemicals.

Mr Ho added: “We’ll have to see how it will be implemented and when they will do it, but it’s a good sign they are keen to do so many things going forward.”