ASEAN was established in 1967 to promote economic growth, social progress, and cultural development among its members. It currently has 10 member states located in Southeast Asia. Key objectives include accelerating economic growth, promoting regional peace and stability, and providing assistance between members. ASEAN has been successful in maintaining regional peace and security, establishing frameworks for economic integration, and becoming an influential voice in global and regional affairs.

1. ASEAN

2. Contents
1. Introduction
2. Historical Background
3. Main Body
4. Aims/Objectives
5. Roles
6. Success
7. Failures
8. Conclusion
9. References

3. 1. Introduction
ASEAN officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic
union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia.
 ASEAN promotes:
 Intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates.
 Economic, Political, Security, Military & Educational integration.
 Sociocultural integration between its members and countries in the Asia-Pacific.
 The union has a total area of 4,522,518 km2 (1,746,154 sq. mi).
 ASEAN has an estimated total population of about 668 million.

4. 2. Historical Background
 ASEAN was preceded by an organization formed on 31 July 1961 called the Association of
Southeast Asia (ASA), a group consisting of Thailand, the Philippines, and the Federation of Malaya.
 ASEAN itself was created on 8 August 1967, when the foreign ministers of five
countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, signed the ASEAN
Declaration.
 The creation of ASEAN was initially motivated by the desire to contain communism. Communism
had taken a foothold in mainland Asia with the Soviet Union occupation of the northern Korean
peninsula after World War II, establishing communist governments in North Korea (1945), People's

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Republic of China (1949) and portions of former French Indochina with North Vietnam (1954),
accompanied by the communist insurgency "Emergency" in British Malaya and unrest in the
recently independent Philippines from the U S. in the early 1950s.
 These events also encouraged the earlier formation of SEATO (South East Asia Treaty
Organization) led by the United States and United Kingdom along with Australia with several
Southeast Asian partners in 1954 as a "containment" extension and an eastern version of the early
defensive bulwark NATO in western Europe of 1949.
 However, the local member states of ASEAN group achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s

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following a change in the balance of power after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam
War in April 1975 and the decline of SEATO.
 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 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.

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On 15 December 1995, the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty was signed to
turn Southeast Asia into a nuclear-weapon-free zone.
 The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states had ratified it.
 It became fully effective on 21 June 2001 after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all
nuclear weapons in the region.
 On 7 January 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member and on 28 July 1995, following the
end of the Cold War, Vietnam joined as the seventh member.

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 Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined two years
later on 23 July 1997. Cambodia was to join at the same
time as Laos and Myanmar, but a coup in 1997 and other
internal instability delayed its entry. It then joined on 30
April 1999 following the stabilization of its government.
 In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United
Nations General Assembly. In response, the organization
awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the UN.

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 The ASEAN Emblem represents a stable,
peaceful, united and dynamic ASEAN. The
colors of the Emblem — blue, red, white and
yellow — represent the main colors of the state
crests of all the ASEAN Member States.
 Blue represents peace and stability, red
depicts courage and dynamism, white shows
purity and yellow symbolizes prosperity.

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 The ten bound stalks of rice in the Centre of the Emblem represent the member states of
ASEAN. They represent the dream of ASEAN's Founding Fathers for an ASEAN comprising all
the countries in Southeast Asia, bound together in friendship and solidarity.
 The circle represents the unity of ASEAN.

11. 3. Main Body
 There are total 10 members state of ASEAN located in Southeast Asia:
Indonesia 8 August 1967
Thailand 8 August 1967
Malaysia 8 August 1967
Philippines 8 August 1967
Singapore 8 August 1967
Brunei 7 January 1984
Myanmar 23 July 1997
Laos 23 July 1997
Vietnam 23 July 1997
Cambodia 30 April 1999

13. 4. Aims/Objectives
 Main objectives of ASEAN are as follows:
 To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region
through joint endeavors' in the spirit of equality and partnership.
 To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in
the relationship among countries.
 To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the
economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields.

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 To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the
educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres.
 To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilization of their agriculture and industries, the
expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the
improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living
standards of their peoples.
 To promote Southeast Asian studies.

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 To maintain close and beneficial
cooperation with existing international and
regional organizations with similar aims
and purposes, and explore all avenues for
even closer cooperation among
themselves.

16. 5. Roles
 Role in Economy:
 The group sought economic integration by creating the AEC by the end of 2015 that established
a single market. The average economic growth of member states from 1989 to 2009 was between
3.8% and 7%. This was greater than the average growth of APEC, which was 2.8%.
 The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), established on 28 January 1992, includes a Common
Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) to promote the free flow of goods between member states.
ASEAN had only six members when it was signed.

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 ASEAN countries have many economic zones (industrial parks, eco-industrial parks, special
economic zones, technology parks, and innovation districts).
 In 2018, eight of the ASEAN members are among the world's outperforming economies, with
positive long-term prospect for the region.
 ASEAN's Secretariat projects that the regional body will grow to become the world's fourth
largest economy by 2030.
 The ASEAN Centre for Energy publishes the ASEAN Energy Outlook every five years,
analyzing and promoting the integration of national energy systems across the region. The sixth
edition was published in 2020.

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 Role in Tourism:
 With the institutionalization of visa-free travel between ASEAN member states, intra-ASEAN
travel has escalated. In 2010, 47% or 34 million out of 73 million tourists in ASEAN member-
states were from other ASEAN countries.
 The 1st ASEAN Tourism Forum was held on 18–26 October 1981 in Kuala Lumpur.
 In 1986, ASEAN Promotional Chapters for Tourism (APCT) were established in Hong Kong,
West Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, and North America.

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 The wide array of tourist attractions across the region drew 109 million tourists to ASEAN in 2015,
up by 34% compared to 81 million tourists in 2011. As of 2012, tourism was estimated to account for
4.6% of ASEAN GDP—10.9% when taking into account all indirect contributions.
 It directly employed 9.3 million people, or 3.2% of total employment, and indirectly supported some
25 million jobs.
 In the 2013 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) report, Singapore placed 1st, Malaysia
placed 8th, Thailand placed 9th, Indonesia placed 12th, Brunei placed 13th, Vietnam placed 16th,
Philippines placed 17th, and Cambodia placed 20th as the top destinations of travelers in the Asia
Pacific region.

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 Role in Global Governance:
 ASEAN’s increased partnership with the United Nations (UN) in the past two decades is a
crucial factor that enables such initiative.
 In terms of the supporting role, ASEAN’s role in providing material and financial supports is
rather limited and is constrained by its own institutional design as an intergovernmental
organization with non-intervention and equality principles.
 To compensate this limitation, ASEAN so far uses a norm-setting strategy to provide policy
supports for member states.

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 ASEAN also capitalizes on its convening power to connect member states with its dialogue partners who
potentially become sources of material and financial supports for member states’ development projects, such
as the case with the ASEAN-China-UNDP Symposium and the ASEAN-EU Dialogue on Sustainable
Development.
 Internally, Poverty Eradication and Gender Division (PEGD) is the vocal point of coordination within
ASEAN. Meanwhile externally, Thailand acts as the ASEAN Coordinator for Sustainable Development
Cooperation.
 It was Thailand’s proposal which led to the Complementarity Initiative and it was also Thailand who

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initiated a Special Lunch on Sustainable Development as a discussion and coordination forum for
ASEAN member states, dialogue partners, and the IMF.
 In the area of monitoring, ASEAN’s role is constrained by its limited resources and member
states’ preferences to report directly to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF).

25. 6. Success/ Achievements
 Politically:
 ASEAN successfully maintained peace and security of the region through various frameworks
and mechanisms.
 The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia or TAC (1976), as a guideline of inter-
state relations, have been developed, expanded and endorsed by over 40 contracting parties within
and outside Southeast Asia.
 ASEAN also created ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994 which now comprises 27
participating countries including all major regional players.

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 It serves as a forum for constructive dialogue and consultation to promote confidence-building
and preventive diplomacy in the region. In 2019, ASEAN, as a main stakeholder in the region,
launched the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific as a response to the Indo-Pacific strategies
introduced by the Quad.
 Economically:
 ASEAN has made an important milestone in regional economic integration since the conclusion
of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Agreement in 1992.

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 Internally, ASEAN has continuously fostered economic cooperation in trade, services and
investment, and moved towards a single market and production base to increase the region's
competitiveness.
 ASEAN has managed not only to integrate internally but also with the world economy.
 ASEAN has also developed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with several partners.
 The conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP driven by 10
ASEAN Member States and 5 Dialogue Partners namely China, Japan, Republic of Korea,
Australia and New Zealand in 2020 has yielded a powerful impact to the world economy.

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 For over five decades, ASEAN has attached great importance to enhance people-centered
Community , contributing to social progress by reducing poverty, enhancing ASEAN's identity,
and safeguarding human rights.
 The ASEAN Socio Cultural Community is all about realizing the full potential of ASEAN
citizens.
 On such, ASEAN has devotedly fostered functional cooperation in many areas among
themselves and with its external counterparts from different continents not only to promote a
cultural agenda, but also cooperation towards protecting and preparing its citizens from natural
disasters, pandemics, effects of climate change, while enhancing people-to-people connectivity.

29. 7. Failures
 Coup in Myanmar:
 Full military government returned to Myanmar with the February 2021 coup that nullified
national elections and ousted its democratically elected government. Since then, the conflict
between the military and much of the rest of the country has only deteriorated.
 Following the hopeful years of 2011 to 2020, Myanmar has descended into intense civil conflict.
Confrontations with ethnic-minority armies have reignited along its borders and violence has
broken out in the central Bamar-majority heartland, in places like Yangon and Mandalay.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands jailed.

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 South China Sea Dispute:
 The South China Sea dispute is the other top-shelf international problem for ASEAN. Like the
Myanmar crisis, it is one with which ASEAN has a long, fraught history.
 It has consistently pinned all its hopes on negotiating a code of conduct with China, which
ASEAN first formally proposed in 1992.
 The organization made no progress until 2002, when it concluded not a binding “code” but a
“declaration.”

32. 8. Conclusion
 A greater multilateral cooperation has been pushed by the members to solve the piracy
challenges on economy, trading and security. Members of the ASEAN, have addressed the
necessity for the regional organization to make some concessions and rearrangements to respond
to the challenges that non-traditional security (specifically piracy) issues posse to the security of
the ASEAN members.
 Despite the efforts and plans made by the ASEAN, this organization is expected to overcome
the image of being regarded solely as a forum to discuss security issues.
 ASEAN is growing at the increasing rate in each and every terms weather its population,
wealth, GDP etc.

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 ASEAN tend to open the way for trade with Britishers due to increasing population.
 ASEAN tend to import and export with various other nations such as China and Europe.
 The trade of payment i.e. negative tends to be reducing due to increasing exports and decreasing
exports from EU.
 The rate of FDI is increasing day by day in ASEAN and on the other hand trade within the
ASEAN nations is also increasing.
 Last not least I want to conclude that all the nations are not equally contributing towards its
growth top 6 nations of ASEAN contribute 95% of GDP and rest 4 nations contribute just 5%.

34. 9. References
 ASEAN at 55 : Achievements and Challenges Ahead. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from
https://lisbon.thaiembassy.org/th/content/asean-at-55-achievements-and-challenges-
ahead?cate=5f20eda671c05359785aa626
 Lohman, W. (2021, November 11). ASEAN’s quest for relevance. GIS Reports.
https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/asean-failures/
 ASEAN. (2022, October 16). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN#Founding
 "ASEAN countries among world's outperforming emerging economies: Report". Channel News
Asia. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2018.