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What is the purpose of ASEAN?

Its main purpose include the acceleration of economic growth, social progress, cultural development among its members,

the protection of the peace and stability of the region, and to provide opportunities for member countries to discuss

differences peacefully.

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated ASEAN is a geo-political and economic organization of ten

countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia,

the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Burma

(Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Its aims include the acceleration of  economic growth, social progress, cultural

development among its members, the protection of regional peace and stability, and to provide opportunities for member countries

to discuss differences peacefully.

ASEAN covers a land area of 4.46 million km², 3% of the total land area of Earth, with a population of approximately 600 million

people, 8.8% of the world population. The sea area of ASEAN is about three times larger than its land counterpart. In 2010, its

combined nominal GDP had grown to US$1.8 trillion.[10] If ASEAN were a single entity, it would rank as the ninth largest economy in

the world.

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History

ASEAN was preceded by an organization called the Association of Southeast Asia, commonly called ASA, an alliance consisting

of the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand that was formed in 1961. The bloc itself, however, was established on 8 August 1967,

when foreign ministers of five countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – met at the Thai

Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok and signed the ASEAN Declaration, more commonly known as the Bangkok

Declaration. The five foreign ministers – Adam Malik of Indonesia,Narciso Ramos of the Philippines, Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S.

Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – are considered the organization’s Founding Fathers.[11]

The motivations for the birth of ASEAN were so that its members’ governing elite could concentrate on nation building, the common

fear of communism, reduced faith in or mistrust of external powers in the 1960s, and a desire for economic development; not to

mention Indonesia’s ambition to become a regional hegemon through regional cooperation and the hope on the part of Malaysia

and Singapore to constrain Indonesia and bring it into a more cooperative framework.

In 1976, the Melanesian state of Papua New Guinea was accorded observer status.[12] Throughout the 1970s, the organisation

embarked on a program of economic cooperation, following the Bali Summit of 1976. This floundered in the mid-1980s and was only

revived around 1991 due to a Thai proposal for a regional free trade area. The bloc grew when Brunei Darussalam became the sixth

member on 8 January 1984, barely a week after gaining independence on 1 January

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Continued expansion

On 28 July 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member .[14] Laos and Myanmar (Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997.[15] Cambodia was to have joined together with Laos and Burma, but was deferred due to the country's internal polit ical struggle. The

country later joined on 30 April 1999, following the stabilization of its government.[15][16]

During the 1990s, the bloc experienced an increase in both membership and drive for further integration. In 1990, Malaysia

proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus[17]

  comprising the then members of ASEAN as well as the People'sRepublic of China, Japan, and South Korea, with the intention of counterbalancing the growing influence of the United States in

the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and in the Asian region as a whole.[18][19] This proposal failed, however, because of 

heavy opposition from the United States and Japan.[18][20] Despite this failure, member states continued to work for further integration

and ASEAN Plus Three was created in 1997.

In 1992, the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme was signed as a schedule for phasing tariffs and as a goal to

increase the region’s competitive advantage as a production base geared for the world market . This law would act as the framework

for the ASEAN Free Trade Area. After the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, a revival of the Malaysian proposal was established

in Chiang Mai, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, which calls for better integration between the economies of ASEAN as well as

the ASEAN Plus Three countries (China, Japan, and South Korea).[21]

Aside from improving each member state's economies, the bloc also focused on peace and stability in the region. On 15 December 

1995, the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty was signed with the intention of turning Southeast Asia into

a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states have ratified it. Itbecame fully effective on 21 June 2001, after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region.

Early 2011, East Timor plans to submit a letter of application to the ASEAN Secretariat in Indonesia to be the eleventh member of 

ASEAN at the summit in Jakarta. Indonesia has shown a warm welcome to East Timor.

Environment and democracy

At the turn of the 21st century, issues shifted to involve a more environmental perspective. The organization started to discuss

environmental agreements. These included the signing of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 as an

attempt to control haze pollution in Southeast Asia.[26] Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful due to the outbreaks of the 2005

Malaysian haze and the 2006 Southeast Asian haze. Other environmental treaties introduced by the organization include the Cebu

Declaration on East Asian Energy Security,[27] the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) in 2005,[28] and the Asia-

Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, both of which are responses to the potential effects of climate change.

Climate change is of current interest.

Through the Bali Concord II in 2003, ASEAN has subscribed to the notion of  democratic peace, which means all member countries

believe democratic processes will promote regional peace and stability. Also, the non-democratic members all agreed that it was

something all member states should aspire to.[29]

The leaders of each country, particularly Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, also felt the need to further integrate the region. Beginning

in 1997, the bloc began creating organizations within i ts framework with the intention of achieving this goal. ASEAN Plus Three was

the first of these and was created to improve existing ties with the People's Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea. This was

followed by the even larger East Asia Summit, which included these countries as well as India, Australia, and New Zealand. This

new grouping acted as a prerequisite for the planned East Asia Community, which was supposedly patterned after the now-

defunct European Community. The ASEAN Eminent Persons Group was created to study the possible successes and failures of 

this policy as well as the possibility of drafting an ASEAN Charter .

In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.[30] As a response, the organization awarded

the status of "dialogue partner" to the United Nations.[31] Furthermore, on 23 July that year, José Ramos-Horta, then Prime Minister 

of East Timor , signed a formal request for membership and expected the accession process to last at least five years before the

then-observer state became a full member .[32][33]

In 2007, ASEAN celebrated its 40th anniversary since its inception, and 30 years of diplomatic relations with the United States.[34] On 26 August 2007, ASEAN stated that it aims to complete all its free trade agreements with China, Japan, South Korea, India,

Australia and New Zealand by 2013, in line with the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.[35][36] In November 

2007 the ASEAN members signed the ASEAN Charter, a constitution governing relations among the ASEAN members and

establishing ASEAN itself as an international legal entity.[citation needed ] During the same year, the Cebu Declaration on East Asian

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Energy Security was signed in Cebu on 15 January 2007, by ASEAN and the other members of the EAS (Australia, People's

Republic of China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea), which promotes energy security by finding energy

alternatives to conventional fuels.[citation needed ]

On 27 February 2009 a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN regional block of 10 countries and New Zealand and its close

partner Australia was signed, it is estimated that this FTA would boost aggregate GDP across the 12 countries by more than

US$48 billion over the period 2000–2020.

The ASEAN way

In the 1960s, the push for  decolonization promoted the sovereignty of Indonesia and Malaysia among others. Since nation building

is often messy and vulnerable to foreign intervention, the governing elite wanted to be free to implement independent policies with

the knowledge that neighbors would refrain from interfering in their domestic affairs. Territorially small members such as Singapore

and Brunei were consciously fearful of force and coercive measures from much bigger neighbors like Indonesia and Malaysia.

"Through political dialogue and confidence building, no tension has escalated into armed confrontation among ASEAN member 

countries since its establishment more than three decades ago".[39]

The ASEAN way can be traced back to the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. "Fundamental

principles adopted from this included:

mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations;

the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion;

non-interference in the internal affairs of one another;

settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner;

renunciation of the threat or use of force; and

effective cooperation among themselves".[40]

On the surface, the process of consultations and consensus is supposed to be a democratic approach to decision making, but the

ASEAN process has been managed through close interpersonal contacts among the top leaders only, who often share a reluctance

to institutionalize and legalize co-operation which can undermine their regime's control over the conduct of regional co-operation.

Thus, the organization is chaired by the secretariat.[41]

All of these features, namely non-interference, informality, minimal institutionalization, consultation and consensus, non-use of force

and non-confrontation have constituted what is called the ASEAN Way. This ASEAN Way has recently proven itself relatively

successful in the settlements of disputes by peaceful manner realm, with Chinese and ASEAN officials agreeing to draft guidelines

ordered to avert tension in the South China Sea, an important milestone ending almost a decade of deadlock.[42][43]

Despite this success, some academics continue to argue that ASEAN's non-interference principle has worsened efforts to improve

in the areas of Burma, human rights abuses and haze pollution in the region. Meanwhile, with the consensus-based approach, every

member in fact has a veto and decisions are usually reduced to the lowest common denominator . There has been a widespread

belief that ASEAN members should have a less rigid view on these two cardinal principles when they wish to be seen as a cohesive

and relevant community.

Policies

Apart from consultations and consensus, ASEAN’s agenda-setting and decision-making processes can be usefully understood in

terms of the so-called Track I and Track II. Track I refers to the practice of diplomacy among government channels. The participants

stand as representatives of their respective states and reflect the official positions of their governments during negotiations and

discussions. All official decisions are made in Track I. Therefore, "Track I refers to intergovernmental processes".[44] Track II differs

slightly from Track I, involving civil society groups and other individuals with various links who work alongside governments.[45] This

track enables governments to discuss controversial issues and test new ideas without making official statements or binding

commitments, and, if necessary, backtrack on positions.

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Although Track II dialogues are sometimes cited as examples of the involvement of  civil society in regional decision-making process

by governments and other second track actors, NGOs have rarely got access to this track, meanwhile participants from the

academic community are a dozen think-tanks. However, these think-tanks are, in most cases, very much linked to their respective

governments, and dependent on government funding for their academic and policy-relevant activities, and many working in Track II

have previous bureaucratic experience.[44] Their recommendations, especially in economic integration, are often closer to ASEAN’s

decisions than the rest of civil society’s positions.

The track that acts as a forum for civil society in Southeast Asia is called Track III. Track III participants are generally civil society

groups who represent a particular idea or brand.[46] Track III networks claim to represent communities and people who are largely

marginalized from political power centers and unable to achieve positive change without outside assistance. This track tries to

influence government policies indirectly by lobbying, generating pressure through the media. Third-track actors also organize and/or 

attend meetings as well as conferences to get access to Track I officials.

While Track II meetings and interactions with Track I actors have increased and intensified, rarely has the rest of civil society had

the opportunity to interface with Track II. Those with Track I have been even rarer.

Looking at the three tracks, it is clear that until now, ASEAN has been run by government officials who, as far as ASEAN matters

are concerned, are accountable only to their governments and not the people. In a lecture on the occasion of ASEAN’s 38th

anniversary, the incumbent Indonesian President Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono admitted:

“All the decisions about treaties and free trade areas, about declarations and plans of action, are made by Heads of Government,

ministers and senior officials. And the fact that among the masses, there is little knowledge, let a lone appreciation, of the largeinitiatives that ASEAN is taking on their behalf.”

Meetings

ASEAN Summit

The organization holds meetings, known as the ASEAN Summit, where heads of government of each member meet to discuss and

resolve regional issues, as well as to conduct other meetings with other countries outside of the bloc with the intention of promoting

external relations.

The ASEAN Leaders' Formal Summit was first held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976. Its third meeting was held in Manila in 1987 and

during this meeting, it was decided that the leaders would meet every five years.[48] Consequently, the fourth meeting was held in

Singapore in 1992 where the leaders again agreed to meet more frequently, deciding to hold the summit every three years.[48] In

2001, it was decided to meet annually to address urgent issues affecting the region. Member nations were assigned to be the

summit host in alphabetical order except in the case of Burma which dropped its 2006 hosting rights in 2004 due to pressure from

the United States and the European Union.[49]

By December 2008, the ASEAN Charter came into force and with it, the ASEAN Summit will be held twice in a year.

The formal summit meets for three days. The usual i tinerary is as follows:

Leaders of member states would hold an internal organization meeting.

Leaders of member states would hold a conference together with foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

A meeting, known as ASEAN Plus Three, is set for leaders of three Dialogue Partners (People's Republic of China,

Japan, South Korea)

A separate meeting, known as ASEAN-CER, is set for another set of leaders of two Dialogue Partners (Australia, New

Zealand

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ASEAN Summits held once or twice a year in a same venue/host nation. Example, Indonesia is the host for 2011 ASEAN Summit;all summits, formal or informal this year 2011 must be held in Indonesia.

During the fifth Summit in Bangkok, the leaders decided to meet "informally" between each formal summit

East Asia Summit

The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a pan-Asian forum held annually by the leaders of 16 countries in East Asia and the region, with

ASEAN in a leadership position. The summit has discussed issues including trade, energy and security and the summit has a role

in regional community building.

The members of the summit are all 10 members of ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

These nations represent nearly half of the world's population. In October 2010, Russia and the United States were formally invited to

participate as full members, with presidents of both countries to attend the 2011 summit.[50]

The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur on 14 December 2005 and subsequent meetings have been held after the annual

ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting.

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Commemorative summit

A commemorative summit is a summit hosted by a non-ASEAN country to mark a milestone anniversary of the establishment of 

relations between ASEAN and the host country. The host country invites the heads of government of ASEAN member countries to

discuss future cooperation and partnership.

Regional Forum

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is a formal, official, multilateral dialogue in Asia Pacific region. As of July 2007, it is consisted of 

27 participants. ARF objectives are to foster dialogue and consultation, and promote confidence-building and preventive diplomacy

in the region.

[55]

 The ARF met for the fi rst time in 1994. The current participants in the ARF are as follows: all the ASEAN members,Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea,

Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, East Timor, United States and Sri Lanka.[56]

The Republic of China

(also known as Taiwan) has been excluded since the establishment of the ARF, and issues regarding the Taiwan Strait are neither 

discussed at the ARF meetings nor stated in the ARF Chairman's Statements.

Other meetings

Aside from the ones above, other regular [57] meetings are also held.[58] These include the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting[59] as

well as other smaller committees, such as the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center .[60] Meetings mostly focus on specific

topics, such as defence[57] or the environment,[57][61] and are attended by Ministers, instead of heads of government.

 Another Three

The ASEAN Plus Three is a meeting between ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea, and is primarily held during each ASEAN

Summit.

 Asia-Europe Meeting 

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal dialogue process initiated in 1996 with the intention of strengthening cooperation

between the countries of Europe and Asia, especially members of the European Union and ASEAN in particular.[62] ASEAN,

represented by its Secretariat, is one of the 45 ASEM partners. It also appoints a representative to sit on the governing board

of Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), a socio-cultural organisation associated with the Meeting.

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 ASEAN-Russia Summit 

The ASEAN-Russia Summit is an annual meeting between leaders of member states and the President of Russia.

 ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting 

The 44th annual meeting will be held in Bali on 16 to 23 July 2011. Indonesia will propose a unified ASEAN travel visa to ease travel

within the region for citizens of ASEAN member states

Economic Community

ASEAN has emphasised regional cooperation in the “three pillars” of security, sociocultural and economic integration.[64] The

regional grouping has made the most progress in economic integration, aiming to create an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by

2015.[65] The average of economic growth of ASEAN-5 during 1989–2009 were Singapore with 6.73 percent, Malaysia 6.15 percent,

Indonesia 5.16 percent, Thailand 5.02 percent and the Philippines 3.79 percent. It were better than average APEC economic growth

with 2.83 percent which all of ASEAN countries were included.[66]

From CEPT to AEC

A Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme to promote the free flow of goods within ASEAN lead the ASEAN FreeTrade Area (AFTA).[65] The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is an agreement by the member nations of ASEAN concerning local

manufacturing in all ASEAN countries. The AFTA agreement was signed on 28 January 1992 in Singapore.[67] When the AFTA

agreement was originally signed, ASEAN had six members, namely, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and

Thailand. Vietnam joined in 1995, Laos and Burma in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. The latecomers have not fully met the AFTA's

obligations, but they are officially considered part of the AFTA as they were required to sign the agreement upon entry into ASEAN,

and were given longer time frames in which to meet AFTA's tariff reduction obligations.[68]

The next step is ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) with main objectives are to create a:

single market and production base

highly competitive economic region

region of equitable economic development

region fully integrated into the global economy

Since 2007, the ASEAN countries gradually lower their import duties among them and targeted will be zero for most of the import

duties at 2015.[69]

Since 2011, AEC has agreed to strengthen the position and increase the competitive edges of  small and medium enterprises (SME)

in the ASEAN region.[70]

aseanblogger.com has agreed to set up online ASEAN community with aim to raise people's awareness on the issue of AEC by

2015. The content of the portal currently consisted of subjects varying from security to culinary and in the future will also touch

tourist sites and local culture.[71]

Comprehensive Investment Area

The ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Area (ACIA) will encourage the free flow of investment within ASEAN. The main principles

of the ACIA are as follows [72]

All industries are to be opened up for investment, with exclusions to be phased out according to schedules

National treatment is granted immediately to ASEAN investors with few exclusions

Elimination of investment impediments

Streamlining of investment process and procedures

Enhancing transparency

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Undertaking investment facilitation measures

Full realisation of the ACIA with the removal of temporary exclusion lists in manufacturing agriculture, fisheries, forestry and mining

is scheduled by 2010 for most ASEAN members and by 2015 for the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Burma, and Vietnam) countries.[72]

Trade in Services

An ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services was adopted at the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in December 1995.[73] Under AFAS, ASEAN Member States enter into successive rounds of negotiations to liberalise trade in services with the aim of 

submitting increasingly higher levels of commitments. The negotiations result in commitments that are set forth in schedules of 

specific commitments annexed to the Framework Agreement. These schedules are often referred to as packages of services

commitments. At present, ASEAN has concluded seven packages of commitments under AFAS.[74]

Single Aviation Market

The ASEAN Single Aviation Market (SAM), proposed by the ASEAN Air Transport Working Group, supported by the ASEAN Senior 

Transport Officials Meeting, and endorsed by the ASEAN Transport Ministers, will introduce an open-sky arrangement to the region

by 2015.[75] The ASEAN SAM will be expected to fully liberalise air travel between its member states, allowing ASEAN to directly

benefit from the growth in air travel around the world, and also freeing up tourism, trade, investment and services flows between

member states.[75][76] Beginning 1 December 2008, restrictions on the third and fourth freedoms of the air between capital cities of 

member states for air passengers services will be removed,[77]while from 1 January 2009, there will be full liberalisation of air freightservices in the region, while[75][76] By 1 January 2011, there will be liberalisation of fifth freedom traffic rights between all capital cities.[78]

Free Trade Agreements With Other Countries

ASEAN has concluded free trade agreements with China (expecting bilateral trade of $500 billion by 2015),[43] Korea, Japan,

Australia, New Zealand and most recently India.[79] The agreement with People's Republic of China created theASEAN–China Free

Trade Area (ACFTA), which went into full effect on 1 January 2010. In addition, ASEAN is currently negotiating a free trade

agreement with the European Union.[80] Republic of China (Taiwan) has also expressed interest in an agreement with ASEAN but

needs to overcome diplomatic objections from China.[81]

ASEAN six majors

ASEAN six majors refer to the six largest economies in the area with economies many times larger than the remaining four ASEAN

countries. The six majors are: GDP nominal 2010 based on IMF data. The figures in parentheses are GDP PPP.

Indonesia: 695 billions (1,027 billions)

Thailand: 312 billions (584 billions)

Malaysia: 218 billions (412 billions)

Singapore: 217 billions (291 billions)

Philippines: 199 billions (373 billions)

 Vietnam: 101 billions (275 billions)

From CMI to AMRO

Due to Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1998 and long and difficult negotiations with International Monetary Fund, ASEAN+3 agreedto set up a mainly bilateral currency swap scheme known as the 2000 Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) to anticipate another financial

crisis or currency turmoil in the future. In 2006 they agreed to make CMI with multilateralisation and called as CMIM. On 3 May

2009, they agreed to make a currency pool consist of contribution $38.4 billion each by China and Japan, $19.2 billion by South

Korea and totally $24 billion by all of ASEAN members, so the total currency pool was $120 billion.[82] A key component has also

newly been added, with the establishment of a surveillance unit.[83]

The ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic and Research Office (AMRO) will start its operation in Singapore in May 2011.[84] It will perform a

key regional surveillance function as part of the $120 billion of Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) currency swap facility

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that was established by Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors of ASEAN countries plus China, Japan and South Korea in

December 2009.[85]

According to some analysts, the amount of $120 billion is relatively small (cover only about 20 percent of needs), so coordination or 

help from International Monetary Fund is still needed.[86]

Foreign Direct Investment

In 2009, realized Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was $37.9 billion and increase by two-fold in 2010 to $75.8 billion. 22 percent of 

FDI came form the European Union, followed by ASEAN countries themselves by 16 percent and then followed by Japan and US.

European Union and US has debt problems, while Japan should make tsunami recovery. China who helped Asia lead the global

post-2008 recovery still grapples with 3-years high inflation. So, in the longterm all of the problems will give negative impact to

ASEAN indirectly. There are possibility to push some programs of ASEAN Economic Community before 2015.[87]

Intra-ASEAN travel

with free visa among ASEAN countries, a huge intra-ASEAN travel occurred and on the right track to establish an ASEAN

Community in the years to come. In 2010, 47 percent or 34 million from 73 million tourists were intra-ASEAN travel.[88]

Intra-ASEAN trade

Until end of 2010, Intra-Asean trade were still low which mainly of them were mostly exporting to countries outside the region,

except Laos and Myanmar were ASEAN-oriented in foreign trade with 80 percent and 50 percent respectively of their exports went

to other ASEAN countries.

Charter 

Main article:  ASEAN Charter 

On 15 December 2008 the members of ASEAN met in the Indonesian capital of  Jakarta to launch a charter, signed in November 

2007, with the aim of moving closer to "an EU-style community".[90] The charter turns ASEAN into a legal entity and aims to create a

single free-trade area for the region encompassing 500 million people. President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated

that "This is a momentous development when ASEAN is consolidating, integrating and transforming itself into a community. It is

achieved while ASEAN seeks a more vigorous role in Asian and global affairs at a time when the international system is

experiencing a seismic shift," he added, referring to climate change and economic upheaval. Southeast Asia is no longer the bitterlydivided, war-torn region it was in the 1960s and 1970s." "The fundamental principles include:

a) respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity of all ASEAN Member States;

b) shared commitment and collective responsibility in enhancing regional peace, security and prosperity;

c) renunciation of aggression and of the threat or use of force or other actions in any manner inconsistent with international law;

d) reliance on peaceful settlement of disputes;

e) non-interference in the internal affairs of ASEAN Member States;

f) respect for the right of every Member State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion and coercion;

g) enhanced consultations on matters seriously affecting the common interest of ASEAN;

h) adherence to the rule of law, good governance, the principles of democracy and constitutional government;

i) respect for fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights, and the promotion of  social justice;

 j) upholding the United Nations Charter and international law, including international humanitarian law, subscribed to by ASEAN

Member States;

k) abstention from participation in any policy or activity, including the use of its territory, pursued by and ASEAN Member State or 

non-ASEAN State or any non-State actor, which threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political and economic stability of 

ASEAN Member States;

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was established on 8 August

1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok 

Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia,

Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July 1995, LaoPDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up

what is today the ten Member States of ASEAN.

AIMS AND PURPOSES

As set out in the ASEAN Declaration, the aims and purposes of ASEAN are:

1. To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in

the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership inorder to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of 

Southeast Asian Nations;

2. To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and

the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence

to the principles of the United Nations Charter;

3. To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common

interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative

fields;

4. To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research

facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres;5. To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of their agriculture

and industries, the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems

of international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and

communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their 

 peoples;

6. To promote Southeast Asian studies; and

7. To maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and

regional organisations with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues

for even closer cooperation among themselves.