Southeast Asia’s growing importance to the rest of the world, including the UK, is widely acknowledged today. It is China’s ‘backyard’ and could be the site of competition between it and the US (not to mention India and Japan). There are a number of long- running territorial disputes between China and the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that could draw the US in. The region is also globally significant in terms of climate change and biodiversity. Southeast Asia’s overall openness to trade and investment makes its role in the world economy an important one. This openness, along with the growth of consumption amongst its new middle class, has created markets for Western exports, making Southeast Asia a key region for the UK Government’s strategy for export-led recovery.