Reasons and background and functions



The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN - pronounced AH-SEE-AHN) is a geo-political and economic organization of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia. ASEAN was formed on August 8, 1967 by the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore as a display of solidarity against communist expansion in Vietnam and insurgency within their own borders. Following the Bali Summit of 1976, the organization embarked on a programme of economic cooperation, which floundered in the mid-1980s only to be revived around a 1991 Thai proposal for a regional "free trade area". The member countries meet biannually at the ASEAN Summit to discuss and resolve regional issues, and also conduct other meetings with other countries outside of the ASEAN to promote external relations.



Members

Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore,Thailand,

Vietnam



History

ASEAN was originally formed out of an organization called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), an alliance consisting of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand that formed in 1961. As such, ASA is considered the predecessor to ASEAN.



ASEAN itself was established on August 8, 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 R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand—are considered as the organization's Founding Fathers.[9]



Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member of the ASEAN when it joined on January 8, 1984, barely a week after the country became independent on January 1.[10] It would be a further 11 years before ASEAN expanded from its core six members.



During the 1990s, ASEAN 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 composing the then-members of ASEAN as well as PRC China, South Korea and Japan, with the intention of counterbalancing the growing influence of the United States in the APEC as well as in the Asian region as a whole. This proposal, however, failed since it faced heavy opposition from Japan and the United States.



Despite this failure, ASEAN states continued to work for further integration. In 1992, the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme was signed as a schedule for phasing tarrifs 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.



On July 28, 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member of ASEAN—and Laos and Myanmar joined two years later in July 23, 1997. Cambodia was to have joined the ASEAN together with Laos and Myanmar, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. Cambodia later joined on April 30, 1999, following the stabilization of its government. This allowed ASEAN to include all countries within Southeast Asia.[11]



At the turn of the 21st century, issues shifted to involve a more environmental prospective. The organization started to discuss environmental agreements. These included the signing of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution in 2002 as an attempt to control haze pollution in Southeast Asia.[12] Unfortunately, this was unsuccesful due to the outbreaks of the 2005 Malaysian haze and the 2006 Southeast Asian haze. Other environmental treaties introduced by the organization include the Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security and the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, both of which are responses to Global Warming and the negative effects of fossil fuel.