Weeks after the Trump administration slapped aggressive tariffs (ranging from 24% to 49%) on Southeast Asian exports, ASEAN’s response has been anything but reactionary. Under Malaysia’s chairmanship, the bloc has opted for strategic dialogue over retaliatory noise: a lesson in restraint that deserves attention in Islamabad. Vietnam, staring down a 46% tariff, immediately recalibrated. Instead of sabre-rattling, it expanded its trade footprint and deepened ties with alternate markets. Thailand quietly adjusted its tariffs to stay competitive, choosing pragmatism over performative outrage. These are real-time diplomatic manoeuvres driven by economic sense and political maturity. Pakistan, on the other hand, finds itself hit with a 29% tariff and yet again caught flat-footed. Our standard playbook-crisis-driven diplomacy, reactive outreach, and no cohesive trade doctrine-offers little insulation from economic shocks. ASEAN’s methodical, regionally unified response should force a rethink. There is strength in coordination. Pakistan’s persistent diplomatic siloing (whether in SAARC, ECO, or broader regional forums) has only weakened its hand. It is time to retire the illusion that bilateral patchwork can substitute for long-term strategy. If Vietnam can pivot within days of a tariff announcement, Pakistan also needs to take a deep look at its affairs and wonder why it still lacks diversified export corridors or viable alternative markets. Central Asia, Africa, and ASEAN are, even today, largely untapped not due to geography but due to our policy inertia. On the geopolitical front, ASEAN’s response is equally instructive. Its member states are navigating a volatile global environment without being forced into binary allegiances. They have managed to assert economic independence while avoiding diplomatic missteps: a balance Pakistan urgently needs to strike as it sits uncomfortably between competing global power poles. The takeaway is simple but inconvenient: real economic diplomacy is slow, deliberate, and collective. ASEAN has understood this. We haven’t. Until Pakistan shifts from episodic engagement to structural strategy–until it begins investing in its alliances, its markets, and its long game–tariffs like these will continue to land harder than they should. What ASEAN is showing the world is that you can be firm without being loud. And that in international economics, the quiet players (when coordinated) tend to win more than they lose. *