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Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Flag
Hymn The ASEAN Hymn
Seat of Secretariat		Jakarta, Indonesia
Member states		10 Brunei Burma Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam
Leaders
-	Secretary General	Ong Keng Yong
Area
-	Total	4,497,493 km² (7th¹) 2,794,607 sq mi
Population
-	2006 estimate	566.3 million (3rd¹)
-	Density	125/km² (84th¹) 323.7/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2007 estimate
-	Total	US$ 737.48 billion(2007)
-	Per capita	US$ 5,541
GDP (nominal)		2007 estimate
-	Total	US$ 1.173 trillion (2007)
-	Per capita	US$ 2,041
HDI		0.708 (medium) (110th¹)
Currency		10 Brunei dollar (BND)  Indonesian rupiah (IDR)  Cambodian riel (KHR)  Lao kip (LAK)  Myanma kyat (MMK)  Malaysian ringgit (MYR)  Philippine peso (PHP)  Singapore dollar (SGD)  Thai baht (THB)  Vietnamese đồng (VND)
Time zone		(UTC+6½ to +9)
Website http://www.aseansec.org/
1	If considered as a single entity.
2	Selected key basic ASEAN indicators
3	Annual growth 1.6%

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations,^[1] commonly referred to as ASEAN, pronounced /'ɑ.si.ɑn/ ("AH-SEE-AHN") in English, is a geo-political and economic organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on August 8, 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand^[2]. Its aims include the acceleration of economic growth, social progress, cultural development among its members, and the promotion of regional peace.^[3]

In 2005, the bloc had a combined GDP (Nominal/PPP) of about USD$884 billion^[4]/$2.755 trillion^[4][5] growing at an average rate of around 4% per annum.^[6]Nominal GDP had grown to $1,066.4 billion in 2006.^[7]

Contents 1 History 2 The ASEAN Way 3 Meetings 3.1 ASEAN Summit 3.2 East Asia Summit 3.3 ASEAN Regional Forum 3.4 Other meetings 3.4.1 ASEAN Plus Three 3.4.2 Asia-Europe Meeting 3.4.3 ASEAN-Russia Summit 4 ASEAN Free Trade Area 4.1 Open Sky 5 Cultural activities 5.1 S.E.A. Write Award 5.2 ASAIHL 5.3 ASEAN Heritage Parks 5.3.1 List 5.4 ASEAN Scholarship 5.5 ASEAN University Network 6 Sports 6.1 Southeast Asian Games 6.2 ASEAN Football Championship 6.3 ASEAN ParaGames 7 Criticism 8 Comparison 9 See also 10 Notes 11 External links 11.1 Organization 11.2 Summits

See also: List of members of the ASEAN

ASEAN was preceded by an organization called the Association of Southeast Asia, an alliance consisting of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand that was formed in 1961. The bloc itself, however, 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, more commonly known as the Bangkok Declaration. The five foreign ministers – Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – are considered as the organization's Founding Fathers.^[8]

In 1976, the Melanesian state of Papua New Guinea was accorded observer status.^[9]. Throughout the 1970s, the organization 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 then grew when Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member after it joined on January 8, 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on January 1.^[10]

During the 1990s, the bloc experienced an increase in both membership as well as in the drive for further integration. In 1990, Malaysia proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus^[11] composing the then-members of ASEAN as well as the People's Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea, with the intention of counterbalancing the growing influence of the United States in the APEC as well as in the Asian region as a whole.^[12][13] This proposal, however, failed since it faced heavy opposition from Japan and the United States.^[12][14]

Despite this failure, member states continued to work for further integration. In 1992, the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme was signed as a schedule for phasing tarrifs 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.

On July 28, 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member, Laos and Myanmar joined two years later in July 23, 1997.^[15] Cambodia was to have joined together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. The country later joined on April 30, 1999, following the stabilization of its government.^[15] This allowed the bloc to include all countries within Southeast Asia.^[16]

At the turn of the 21st century, issues shifted to involve a more environmental prospective. 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.^[17] 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^[18], the ASEAN-Wildlife Enforcement Network in 2005^[19], and the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, both of which are responses to Global Warming and the negative effects of climate change.

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.^[20]

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 its 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.^[21] As a response, the organization awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the United Nations.^[22] Furthermore, in July 23 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.^[23][24]

In 2007, ASEAN has celebrated its 40th anniversary since its inception, and 30 years of diplomatic relations with the United States^[25].

On August 26, 2007, ASEAN has also 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.^[26][27]

ASEAN was designed to be first and foremost an association of states actively engaged in nation building, as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore had become sovereign independent nations only after the end of the World War II. Since nation building was often messy and vulnerable to foreign intervention, the governing elite wanted to have free hands to conduct their policies in the knowledge that neighbours would refrain from interfering in their domestic affairs. In addition, smallest members such as Singapore, Brunei are consciously fearful of force and coercive measures from much bigger neighbours like Indonesia and Malaysia. In other words, ASEAN was established to ensure sovereignty remained firmly located at the national level.

As a result, non-interference became the cardinal principle of the organisation. Members were committed to the norm of non-use of force and non-confrontation, and they often shared a reluctance to institutionalise and legalise regional cooperation. They were in favour of informal and under-institutionalised forms of regional cooperation instead. In fact, the ASEAN process has been managed through consultations and consensus among top leaders.

All of these features, namely non-interference, informality, minimal institutionalisation, consultation and consensus, non-use of force and non-confrontation have constituted what is called the Way.

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.^[28] 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.^[28] 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 and the European Union.^[29]

The formal summit meets for three days. The usual itinerary 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).

ASEAN Formal Summits
	Date	Country	Host
1st	February 23–24, 1976	Indonesia	Bali
2nd	August 4–5, 1977	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur
3rd	December 14–15, 1987	Philippines	Manila
4th	January 27–29, 1992	Singapore	Singapore
5th	December 14–15, 1995	Thailand	Bangkok
6th	December 15–16, 1998	Vietnam	Hanoi
7th	November 5–6, 2001	Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan
8th	November 4–5, 2002	Cambodia	Phnom Penh
9th	October 7–8, 2003	Indonesia	Bali
10th	November 29–30, 2004	Laos	Vientiane
11th	December 12–14, 2005	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur
12th	January 11–14, 20071	Philippines	Cebu
13th	November 18–22, 2007	Singapore	Singapore
14th	2008	Thailand
15th	2009	Vietnam
1 Postponed from December 10–14, 2006 due to Typhoon Seniang.

During the fifth Summit in Bangkok, the leaders decided to meet "informally" between each formal summit:^[28]

ASEAN Informal Summits
	Date	Country	Host
1st	November 30, 1996	Indonesia	Jakarta
2nd	December 14-16, 1997	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur
3rd	November 27-28, 1999	Philippines	Manila
4th	November 22-25, 2000	Singapore	Singapore

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. Russia has applied for membership and in 2005, was presented with an observer status. The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur on December 14, 2005 and subsequent meetings have been held after the annual ASEAN Leaders’ Meeting.

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is an informal 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.^[30] The ARF met for the first time in 1994. The current participants in the ARF are as follows: all 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, Timor-Leste, United States and Sri Lanka.

Aside from the ones above, other regular^[31] meetings are also held.^[32] These include the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting^[33] as well as other smaller committees, such as the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.^[34] Meetings mostly focus on specific topics, such as defense^[31] or the environment,^[31][35] and are attended by Ministers, instead of heads of government.

The ASEAN Plus Three is a meeting between ASEAN, the People's Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea, and is primarily held during each ASEAN Summit.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal dialogue process initiated in 1996, bringing together the European Union and the ASEAN Plus Three groupings.^[36]

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

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 January 28, 1992 in Singapore. 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 Myanmar 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.

The ASEAN Open Sky policy aims to liberalise air travel between member cities. The agreement was proposed by the ASEAN Air Transport Working Group and endorsed by the ASEAN Transport Ministers during the a meeting in Myanmar in October 2003. The agreement will be implemented beginning January 1, 2009, with the air routes between capital cities of member countries to be liberalised within that year, and would then expand to cover other cities by 2015. Singapore and Malaysia are in separate talks to open the Singapore/Kuala Lumpur route before 2009.

The organization hosts cultural activities in an attempt to further integrate the region. These include sports and educational activities as well as writing awards. Examples of these include the ASEAN University Network and the Singapore-sponsored ASEAN Scholarship.

The S.E.A. Write Award is a literary award given to Southeast Asian poets and writers annually since 1979. The award is either given for a specific work or as a recognition of an author's lifetime achievement. Works that are honored vary and have included poetry, short stories, novels, plays, folklore as well as scholarly and religious works. Ceremonies are held in Bangkok and is presided by a member of the Thai royal family.

ASAIHL or the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning is a non-governmental organization founded in 1956 that strives to strengthen higher learning institutions, espescially in teaching, research, and public service, with the intention of cultivating a sense of regional identity and interdependence.

ASEAN Heritage Parks^[37] is a list of nature parks launched 1984 and relaunched in 2004. It aims to protect the region's natural treasures. There are now 35 such protected areas, including the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park and the Kinabalu National Park.^[38].

ASEAN Heritage Sites
Site	Country	Site	Country
Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park	Myanmar	Ao Phang-nga Marine National Park	Thailand
Apo Natural Park	Philippines	Ba Be National Park	Vietnam
Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park	Indonesia	Gunung Leuser National Park	Indonesia
Gunung Mulu National Park	Malaysia	Ha Long Bay	Vietnam
Hoang Lien Sa Pa National Park	Vietnam	Iglit-Baco National Park	Philippines
Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary	Myanmar	Inlé Lake Wildlife Sanctuary	Myanmar
Kaeng Krachan National Park	Thailand	Kerinci Seblat National Park	Indonesia
Khakaborazi National Park	Myanmar	Khao Yai National Park	Thailand
Kinabalu National Park	Malaysia	Komodo National Park	Indonesia
Kon Ka Kinh National Park	Vietnam	Lampi Marine National Park	Myanmar
Lorentz National Park	Indonesia	Meinmhala Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary	Myanmar
Mu Ko Surin-Mu Ko Similan Marine National Park	Thailand	Nam Ha Protected Area	Laos
Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park	Vietnam	Preah Monivong (Bokor) National Park	Cambodia
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park	Philippines	Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve	Singapore
Taman Negara National Park	Malaysia	Tarutao Marine National Park	Thailand
Tasek Merimbun Wildlife Sanctuary	Brunei	Thung Yai-Huay Kha Khaeng National Park	Thailand
Tubbataha Reef Marine Park	Philippines	Ujung Kulon National Park	Indonesia
Virachey National Park	Cambodia
Keraton Yogyakarta	Indonesia

The ASEAN Scholarship is a scholarship program offered by Singapore to the 9 other ASEAN member states for secondary school, junior college, and university education. It covers accommodation, food, medical benefits & accident insurance, school fees, and examination fees.^[39].

The ASEAN University Network (AUN) is a consortium of Southeast Asian universities. It was originally founded in November 1995 by 13 universities within the ASEAN member states. The membership of the consortium is currently 17 due to the enlargement of ASEAN in 1997 and 1999.

The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games is under regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia.

The ASEAN Football Championship is a biennial international football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation, accredited by FIFA and contested by the national teams of Southeast Asia nations. It was inaugurated in 1996 as Tiger Cup, but after Asia Pacific Breweries terminated the sponsorship deal, "Tiger" was renamed "ASEAN".

The ASEAN ParaGames is a biennial multi-sport event held after every Southeast Asian Games for athletes with physical disabilities. The games are participated by the 11 countries located in Southeast Asia. The games, patterned after the Paralympics, includes mobility disabilities, amputees, visual disabilities, and those with cerebral palsy.

Western countries have criticized ASEAN for being too "soft" in its approach to promoting human rights and democracy in the junta-led Myanmar.^[40] Despite global outrage at the military crack-down on peaceful protesters in Yangon, ASEAN have refused to suspend Myanmar as a member and also rejects proposals for economic sanctions.^[41] This has caused concern as the European Union, a potential trade partner, has refused to conduct free trade negotiations at a regional level for these political reasons.^[42] International observers view it as a "talk shop",^[43] which implies that the organization is "big on words but small on action".^[44]

During the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu, several militant groups staged anti-globalization and anti-Arroyo rallies.^[45] According to the militants, the agenda of economic integration would negatively affect industries in the Philippines and would cause thousands of Filipinos to lose their jobs.^[46] They also viewed the organization as "imperialistic" that threatens the country's sovereignty.^[46] A human rights lawyer from New Zealand was also present to protest about the human rights situation in the region in general.^[47]

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Most active regional blocs
as of 2004

Regional bloc1	Area (km²)	Population	GDP (PPP) ($US)		Member states1
			in millions	per capita
Agadir	1,703,910	126,066,286	513,674	4,075	4
AU	29,797,500	897,548,804	1,515,000	1,896	53
ASEAN	4,400,000	553,900,000	2,172,000	4,044	10
CACM	422,614	37,816,598	159,536	4,219	5
CARICOM	462,344	14,565,083	64,219	4,409	(14+1)3
CCASG / GCC	2,285,844	35,869,438	536,223	14,949	6
CEFTA	298,148	28,929,682	222,041	7,675	(7+1)3
EU	4,325,675	496,198,605	12,025,415	24,235	27
EurAsEC	20,789,100	208,067,618	1,689,137	8,118	6
EFTA	529,600	12,233,467	471,547	38,546	4
GUAM	810,506	63,764,600	456,173	7,154	4
NAFTA	21,588,638	430,495,039	15,279,000	35,491	3
PARTA	528,151	7,810,905	23,074	2,954	(14+2)3
SAARC	5,136,740	1,467,255,669	4,074,031	2,777	8
Unasur / Unasul	17,339,153	370,158,470	2,868,430	7,749	12
UN and countries for reference2	Area (km²)	Population	GDP (PPP) ($US)		Units4
			in millions	per capita
UN	133,178,011	6,411,682,270	55,167,630	8,604	192
Brazil	8,514,877	188,078,261	1,594,482	9,108	27
Canada	9,984,670	32,507,874	1,165,000	35,200	13
India	3,287,590	1,102,600,000	4,042,000	3,700	35
Japan	377,873	128,085,000	4,220,000	33,100	47
PR China5	9,596,960	1,306,847,624	10,000,000	7,600	33
Russia	17,075,200	143,782,338	1,723,000	12,100	89
USA	9,631,418	300,000,000	12,980,000	43,500	50
Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database. Legend      smallest value among the blocs compared     largest value among the blocs compared Footnotes 1 Including data only for full and most active members. 2 Including the largest five countries by area, population and GDP (PPP), but not #4 in population or #5 in GDP (PPP). 3 Including non-sovereign autonomous areas of other states. 4 Members or administrative divisions. 5 Data for the People's Republic of China does not include Hong Kong, Macau, or regions administered    by the Republic of China (Taiwan). This box: view • talk • edit

• ASEAN Community
• ASEAN Common Time
• ASEAN kechil
• Asian Currency Unit
• SEATO
• Mekong-Ganga Cooperation

• ASEAN Secratariat Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN Focus Group Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN Foundation Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN Regional Forum Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN Secretariat Related Sites Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• Official Guidebook on ASEAN Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN News Network (headline news links) Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• ASEAN-Japan Centre Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• BBC Country Profile/Asean Retrieved on March 13, 2007.

• 13th ASEAN Summit Singapore official site. Retrieved on September 16, 2007.
• 12th ASEAN Summit Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• 11th ASEAN Summit December 12-14, 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia official site. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• 11th ASEAN Summit December 12–14, 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• Cebu Summit unofficial website/ASEAN Quick Guide and General Info Retrieved on March 13, 2007.
• The Council on East Asian Community Retrieved on March 13, 2007.

v • d • e Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Brunei  Malaysia  Burma  Philippines  Cambodia  Singapore  Indonesia  Thailand  Laos  Vietnam
Observers:  Papua New Guinea  Timor-Leste

v • d • e Topics on Supranationalism and World government
Theory	Supranationalism · Federalism · Confederation · Intergovernmentalism · Anti-nationalism · Globalization · Democratic globalization · Peace from dominant power
International bodies	United Nations · Interpol · International Monetary Fund · World Bank Group · World Trade Organization
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History	League of Nations · Permanent Court of International Justice · Nuremberg Trials · Permanent Court of Arbitration
Proposals & Concepts	World government · United Nations Parliamentary Assembly · Central Asian Union  · Pacific Union  · United States of Europe
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