History[edit]
See also: Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
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Bangkok Declaration
labelled map of ASEAN members states
The member states of ASEAN
Burma
(Myanmar)
Laos
Vietnam
Thailand
Cam-
bodia
Philippines
Brunei
Malaysia
Malaysia
Malaysia
Singapore
I n d o n e s i a
I n d o n e s i a
I n d o n e s i a
Foundation[edit]
ASEAN was prefigured by an organisation called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), a group consisting of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand that was formed in 1961. ASEAN itself was inaugurated on 8 August 1967, when foreign ministers of five countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, 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 organisation's founding fathers.[13]
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.
The block grew when Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member on 8 January 1984, barely a week after gaining independence.[14]
Expansion and further integration[edit]
See also: Enlargement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships between various Asian regional organisations v • d • e
ASEAN achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following the changed balance of power in Southeast Asia after the end of the Vietnam War. The region’s dynamic economic growth during the 1970s strengthened the organization, enabling ASEAN to adopt a unified response to Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in 1979. ASEAN’s first summit meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia, in 1976, resulted in an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and a Declaration of Concord. The end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s ASEAN emerged as a leading voice on regional trade and security issues.[15]
On 28 July 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member.[16] Laos and Myanmar (Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997.[17] Cambodia was to have joined together with Laos and Burma, but entry was delayed due to the country's internal political struggle. The country later joined on 30 April 1999, following the stabilisation of its government.[17][18]
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[19] composed of the 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 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and in the Asian region as a whole.[20][21] This proposal failed, however, because of heavy opposition from the United States and Japan.[20][22] 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 out 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 (AFTA). 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.[23]
After the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, a revival of the Malaysian proposal was put forward 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).[24]
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. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001, after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region.[25]
East Timor submitted a letter of application to be the eleventh member of ASEAN at the summit in Jakarta in March 2011. Indonesia has shown a warm welcome to East Timor.[26][27][28]