If and only if these small nations can work together as one in the equivalent of, say, the 50 states in America.
You know better than me, Kalu-Miah, were there any unions in such grand scale every existed? ASEAN+ have too much differences in: ethnic compositions and social makeups, governmental ideologies, cultures, economic disparities, power structures.....etc. Even though impending wars and atrocities by a perceived powerful enemy just might bind small nations together, however the road is long unless there are strong leadership within the nations that can coerce and persuade such a move. But, for some, giving up power is never easy.
Like they always say: Breaking up is always easier than making up.
I understand and appreciate what you are saying, there are tremendous road blocks on the way. If you look at EU, after about 60 years, it is still work in progress, not sure when it will become United States of Europe, if ever.
But why I think it will get easier and easier in the next years and decades, is becoming increasingly clear, if we look at this forum. Small countries have little alternatives, but to team up. And it will be in stages, economic integration, military cooperation, lets say teaming up to create a common platform for military hardware R&D work in the developed countries like Japan and Korea and manufacturing them in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. Also training the armies together, all using same weapons, which can also be exported to friendly allied nations. We all need to buy assault rifles, tanks and fighter planes, why not team up and make our own, instead of depending on Russia, China or USA. If we have the market of a billion people and technologically advanced countries like Japan and South Korea in the team, why we should not be able to do it?
I think currently the leadership in Japan and Korea are not thinking in these lines yet, but soon they will. USA influences politics within South Korea, but Japan not so much. Soon they will break free and figure out that they cannot just depend on the US for security. Mainly it depends on Japan and South Korea. I am hoping South Korea will make the first move, as it is already heavily invested in ASEAN, as well as Bangladesh. Then more conservative Japan will follow suit. I may reside in South Korea at some point in the future and I will try to contribute personally if I get a chance, getting involved with the one political party that I know has some similar inclinations.
Without Japan and South Korea, ASEAN has very limited potential, in my opinion. Once Japan and South Korea make up their mind, then integration speed with ASEAN will increase at the cost of their investment of time, capital and effort in rest of the world. So it will be a recreation of Japanese empire in a sense, but with South Korea as the vice-emperor. That is the model I am thinking of. And the greatest amount of push, I believe, will come from vulnerable countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Myanmar while the others will jump on the bandwagon, since it is also good for them.
It will be good for China and India as well, as it will reduce US dependence and meddling in the region. It has to be a win-win for all parties and I believe it will be. If countries like China and India are peaceful and are committed to peaceful rise, they have no reason not to welcome a developed and more integrated region. And a developed more stable region will make overseas Chinese in this region politically and economically more secure. Imagine this whole region will be a bigger version of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Singapore, with many more varieties and a different demographic makeup.
First step to realize our dream is to visualize and see it in our minds eye. If we can keep the picture alive in our mind, eventually it will become a reality.