ASEAN
Association of Southeast Asian Nations | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Motto: "One Vision, One Identity, One Community" "10 countries, 1 identity" | ||||||
| Anthem: "The ASEAN Way" | ||||||
.svg) | ||||||
| Seat of Secretariat |  Jakarta | |||||
| Largest city | Jakarta | |||||
| Working language | ||||||
| Demonym | Southeast Asian | |||||
| Member states | ||||||
| Government | Regional organisation | |||||
| - | ASEAN Summit Presidency | Indonesia [1] | ||||
| - | Secretary General |  Surin Pitsuwan | ||||
| Formation | ||||||
| - | Bangkok Declaration | 8 August 1967 | ||||
| - | Charter | 16 December 2008 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 4,479,210.5 km2 2,778,124.7 sq mi | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2010 estimate | 601 million | ||||
| - | Density | 135/km2 216/sq mi | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2010 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | US$ 3.084 trillion [2] | ||||
| - | Per capita | US$ 5,131 | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2010 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | US$ 1,800 billion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $2,995 | ||||
| HDI (2007) |  0.742 (medium) (100th¹) | |||||
| Currency | ||||||
| Time zone | ASEAN(UTC+9 to +6:30) | |||||
| Internet TLD | ||||||
| Website asean.org | ||||||
| Calling code | ||||||
| 1 | If considered as a single entity. | |||||
| 2 | Selected key basic ASEAN indicators | |||||
| 3 | Annual growth 1.6% | |||||
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated ASEAN (generally pronounced occasionally in English, the official language of the bloc), is a geo-political and economic organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore andThailand.[7] Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Its aims include the acceleration of economic growth, social progress, cultural development among its members, the protection of the peace and stability of the region, and to provide opportunities for member countries to discuss differences peacefully.
ASEAN spans over an area of 4.46 million km2, 3% of the total land area of Earth, with a population of approximately 600 million people, 8.8% of the world population. In 2010, its combined nominal GDP had grown to USD $1.8 trillion. If ASEAN were a single country, it would rank as the 9th largest economy in the world and the 3rd largest in Asia in terms of nominal GDP.
History
ASEAN was preceded by an organisation called the Association of Southeast Asia, commonly called ASA, an alliance consisting of the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand that was formed in 1961. The bloc itself, however, was established on 8 August 1967, when foreign ministers of five countries– Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand– met at the Thai Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok and 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 as the organisation's Founding Fathers.[10]
The motivations for the birth of ASEAN were so that its members’ governing elite could concentrate on nation building, the common fear ofcommunism, reduced faith in or mistrust of external powers in the 1960s, as well as a desire for economic development; not to mention Indonesia’s ambition to become a regional hegemon through regional cooperation and the hope on the part of Malaysia and Singapore to constrain Indonesia and bring it into a more cooperative framework.
In 1976, the Melanesian state of Papua New Guinea was accorded observer status.[11] Throughout the 1970s, the organisation embarked on a program of economic cooperation, following the Bali Summit of 1976. This floundered in the mid-1980s and was only revived around 1991 due to a Thai proposal for a regional free trade area. The bloc then grew when Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member after it joined on 8 January 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on 1 January.[12]
[edit]Continued expansion
On 28 July 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member.[13] Laos and Burma (Myanmar) joined two years later in 23 July 1997.[14] Cambodia was to have joined together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. The country later joined on 30 April 1999, following the stabilisation of its government.[14][15]
During the 1990s, the bloc experienced an increase in both membership as well as in the drive for further integration. In 1990, Malaysia proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus[16] composing the then-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) as well as in the Asian region as a whole.[17][18] This proposal failed, however, because of heavy opposition from the United States and Japan.[17][19] 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 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. After the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, a revival of the Malaysian proposal was established 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).[20]
Aside from improving each member state's economies, 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.[21]
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