Association of Southeast Asian Nations

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a political, economic, and cultural organization of countries located in Southeast Asia. ASEAN was formed on August 8, 1967 by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, as a non-provocative display of solidarity against communist expansion in Vietnam and insurgency within their own borders. Following the Bali Summit of 1976, the organization embarked on a programme of economic cooperation, which floundered in the mid-1980's only to be revived around a 1991 Thai proposal for a regional "free trade area". The countries meet annually.

1 Members
2 History
3 The ASEAN Regional Forum
4 The ASEAN Summit
5 Comparison with other Regional blocs
6 See also
7 External links

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Members

The current member countries of ASEAN are (earliest to most recent membership):

Founding members (August 8, 1967)
States that joined later
- Template:BRU (January 7, 1984)
- Template:VIE (July 28, 1995)
- Template:LAO (July 23, 1997)
- Template:MYA (July 23, 1997)
- Template:CAM (April 30, 1999)

- Template:PNG has observer status in ASEAN while Timor Leste has applied for observer status in ASEAN. Timor Leste is widely seen as a member state candidate. [1]

The association includes about 8% of the world's population and in 2003 it had a combined GDP of about US$700 billion, growing at an average rate of around 4% per annum. The economies of member countries of ASEAN are diverse, although its major products include electronics, oil, and wood.

The ASEAN countries are culturally rich. It includes more Muslims than any other geopolitical entity. About 240 million Muslims live mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Buddhism constitutes the main religion of mainland Southeast Asia and there are about 170 million Buddhists in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore. Catholicism is predominant in the Philippines.

ASEAN has governments with widely differing views on governance and political process, including practices in areas such as suffrage and representation. It encompasses styles of government ranging from democracy to autocracy.

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History

ASEAN was originally formed out of an organization called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), an alliance consisting of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand that formed in 1961. As such, ASA is considered the predecessor to ASEAN.

ASEAN itself was established on August 8, 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 (also known as the Bangkok Declaration). The five foreign ministers, considered the organization's Founding Fathers, were Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand. The founding fathers envisaged that the organization would eventually encompass all countries in Southeast Asia.

Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member of the ASEAN when it joined on January 7, 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on January 1. It would be a further 11 years before ASEAN expanded from its core six members. Vietnam became the seventh member in July 28, 1995, and Laos and Myanmar joined two years later in July 23, 1997. Vietnam would become the first Communist member of ASEAN. Cambodia was to have joined the ASEAN together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. Cambodia later joined on April 30, 1999, following the stabilization of its government. Thus was completed the ASEAN-10—the organization of all countries in Southeast Asia.

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The ASEAN Regional Forum

Image:ASEAN Regional Forum Map.png

ASEAN regularly conducts dialogue meetings with other countries and an organization, collectively known as the ASEAN dialogue partners during the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

The ASEAN Regional Forum is an informal multilateral dialogue of 25 members that seeks to address security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The ARF met for the first time in 1994. The current participants in the ARF are as follows: ASEAN, Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Russia, East Timor, and the United States.

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The ASEAN Summit

Template:Main The organization holds annual meetings in relation to economic, and cultural development of Southeast Asian countries.

The ASEAN Leaders' Formal Summit was first held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976. At first there was no set schedule due to domestic issues in the member countries. In 1992, leaders decided to hold meetings every three years; and 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 Myanmar which dropped its 2006 hosting rights in 2004 due to pressure from the United States.

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

ASEAN leaders hold an internal organization meeting.
ASEAN leaders hold a conference together with foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
Leaders of 3 ASEAN Dialogue Partners (also known as [[ASEAN+3]]) namely China, Japan and South Korea hold a meeting with the ASEAN leaders.
A separate meeting is set for leaders of 2 ASEAN Dialogue Partners (also known as ASEAN-CER) namely Australia and New Zealand.

At the 11th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, new meetings were scheduled. These were:

East Asia Summit - converging ASEAN and six dialogue partners namely China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
ASEAN-Russia Summit - meeting between ASEAN leaders and the President of Russia.

ASEAN Formal Summit
Number	Date	Country	Place
1st	1976 February 23 - February 24	Template:Flagcountry	Bali
2nd	1977 August 4 - August 5	Template:Flagcountry	Kuala Lumpur
3rd	1987 December 14 - December 15	Template:Flagcountry	Metro Manila
4th	1992 January 27 - January 29	Template:Flagcountry	Singapore
5th	1995 December 14 - December 15	Template:Flagcountry	Bangkok
6th	1998 December 15 - December 16	Template:Flagcountry	Hanoi
7th	2001 November 5 - November 6	Template:Flagcountry	Bandar Seri Begawan
8th	2002 November 4 - November 5	Template:Flagcountry	Phnom Penh
9th	2003 October 7 - October 8	Template:Flagcountry	Bali
10th	2004 November 29 - November 30	Template:Flagcountry	Vientiane
11th	2005 December 12 - December 14	Template:Flagcountry	Kuala Lumpur
12th	2006 December 11 - December 14	Template:Flagcountry	Metro Cebu
13th	2007	Template:Flagcountry
14th	2008	Template:Flagcountry
15th	2009	Template:Flagcountry

To address urgent regional issues, ASEAN leaders hold informal summit meetings while formal meetings were being prepared. Leaders decided to discontinue informal meetings in 2000 and hold formal meetings every year effective 2001.

ASEAN Informal Summit
Number	Date	Country	Place
1st	1996 November 30	Template:Flagcountry	Jakarta
2nd	1997 December 14 - December 16	Template:Flagcountry	Kuala Lumpur
3rd	1999 November 27 - November 28	Template:Flagcountry	Metro Manila
4th	2000 November 22 - November 25	Template:Flagcountry

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Comparison with other Regional blocs

Template:Most Active Regional blocs

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External links

ASEAN Secretariat official website
11th ASEAN Summit 12–14 December 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia official site
11th ASEAN Summit 12–14 December 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ASEAN Regional Forum
ASEAN Foundation
ASEAN-Japan Centre
ASEAN News Network headline news links
ASEAN Focus Group
ASEAN Secretariat Related Sites

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)	Image:Flag of ASEAN.svg
Brunei \| Cambodia \| Indonesia \| Laos \| Malaysia \| Myanmar \| Philippines \| Singapore \| Thailand \| Vietnam