History of ASEAN
What is the ASEAN?
ASEAN is the Association of South East Asian Nations. It is
a regional cooperative organization established by the Bangkok Declaration on
August 8, 1967. The five founded members: Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Main
purpose:
To promote international cooperation
among Southeast Asian countries in economic, social,
cultural, educational and
academic matters.
On
January 8, 1984, Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN.
On July
28, 1995, Vietnam became ASEAN.
On 23
July, 1997, Lao PDR and Myanmar joined ASEAN.
Finally, on
April 30, 1999, Cambodia became ASEAN.
Currently,
ASEAN has ten Member States.
ASEAN can be known as, the first
“regional” association in South East Asia. It is formed with the Southeast
Asian nationality and has been existence for 52 years by 2019.
ASEAN initiation and composition came
from within the region without any interference from
outside countries( Vinita Sukraser,
1989)
ASEAN
is also a symbol of an attempt to work for solidarity of a group of developing
countries.
To
seek channels of regional cooperation, to boost economic levels of the member
countries, and
to create a limited bargaining power in the arena of
international politics.
The
Bangkok Declaration established the organization, and was signed by the Foreign
Ministers of
the member countries:
The Foreign Ministers
1. Mr. Narciso
Ramos, Philippines, 2. Mr. Adam Malik,
Indonesia, 3. Mr. Thanat Khoman,
Thailand, 4. Tun
Abdul Razak,
Malaysia, and 5. Mr. S Rajaratnam,Singapore.
It was not a treaty with legal
obligations.
However,
ASEAN cooperative success and the mutual obligation of its members is to
aim at
promoting economic and cultural cooperation.
The association omits mentioning
political cooperation or collective defense to be able to lead to disputes.
by Suon Somony
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