In this connection, the november 2007 Singapore Summit represented another
major historical milestone for ASEAN. The Summit saw the signing of the
ASEAN Charter document by all the Summit leaders. The landmark Charter was subsequently ratified by all member states in December 2008 in Bangkok, thus
conferring on ASEAN, for the first time, a legal personality. With the Charter,
ASEAN's has taken another important step, albeit a small one, towards becoming
a rule-based entity.