Perhaps the best attestation of the

Perhaps the best attestation of the relevance of ASEAN as a regional institution
with a future is the open international recognition and acceptance of ASEA as
reflected in the various ASEAN -extra-regional institutional collaborations under
the Dialogue, Plus 3, ARF, American Society for Engineering Management
(ASEM), and other processes. In this context, the recent decisions by Japan and
the USA to appoint 'special resident envoys' to ASEAN to handle ASEAN matters
provide further proof of this. Given these developments, perhaps the time has
come for ASEAN to reciprocate by also appointing ASEAN ambassadorial
representatives to the USA, EU, Japan, and others major world capitals to
manage ASEAN's growing external relationship with these centers and further
elevate its international profile consistent with its status as a regional body with
international legal personality.