15 Lesser Known Facts About Asean And Its Countries Revealed

You must have heard your Political Science teacher mentioning something about the association that is related to the word ‘Asian’.But what is exactly up with this ‘Asian’ homophone? Let’s find out!The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an organization that encourages cultural, social, political, and economic development, along with security cooperation with its region. This regional grouping represents about 8.58% of the world population, which includes the region of Southeast Asia, with over 655 million individuals. The ASEAN started off as five founding countries, which later expanded to a family of ten member states. Since its formation, the ASEAN region has been playing several major roles in maintaining equilibrium and promoting cultural growth, security and political cooperation, and economic progress. The ASEAN community also has contributed enormously to major global issues.With that, find out these super cool facts about the famous Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).The Meaning and Full Form of ASEANSo, first things, first. Let’s explore the meaning that the abbreviation stands for.ASEAN is basically an abbreviation for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which essentially is a union of member states that falls under Southeast Asia.ASEAN was first formed on August 8, 1967.ASEAN exists to promote intergovernmental cooperation and stands as a political and economic union of these Southeast Asian nations.The Location of ASEANFounded in 1967, learn about the location of its headquarters and the different summits held by ASEAN in these interesting facts below.The headquarters of ASEAN is located in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta.ASEAN was first established on August 8, 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand.The first ASEAN summit was held in Bali, Indonesia, in 1976, followed by the second one in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.The third ASEAN summit was held in Manila, the Philippines, in the year 1987.ASEAN summits have been later held in different other Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunie, Laos, and Myanmar.Australia was the first nation to become an ASEAN Dialogue Partner.The Founders and Countries in ASEANSo far, there are a total of 10 ASEAN member states that together form a union and act as an economic and political security community. Read on to find out some fascinating facts about these ASEAN countries.In 1961, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Federation of Malaya formed the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), the precursor to ASEAN. ASA member states included the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.ASEAN first came into existence on August 8, 1967, with representatives from five nations signing the ASEAN Declaration at the Ministry of Foreign AffairsAdam Malik from Indonesia, Narciso Ramos from the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak from Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam from Singapore, and Tun Thanat Khoman from Thailand are known to be the founding fathers of ASEAN.Adam Malik, the third Vice President of Indonesia and one of the founding fathers, had a major role in the formation of ASEAN. He helped in the settlement of the dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia that was very prevalent back then. He also believed that these two countries, given their similar interests and cultural background, should be allies.From just five members, ASEAN later grew into a strong group of ten member states.These member states include Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore.Since the formation, the first time that the ASEAN added a new member was on January 7, 1984. This new member of the organization was Brunei, followed by Vietnam on July 28, 1995.They further expanded their small team of seven members by adding Laos and Myanmar on July 23, 1997.Cambodia, too, joined hands to work together towards the shared goals of development on April 30, 1999.ASEAN currently has two observer countries that have been seeking ASEAN membership; the first being Papua New Guinea (since 1976) and East Timor (since 2002).Since the year 1974, Australia has remained ASEANS’ first Dialogue Partner. ASEAN and Australia have also become Strategic Partners since 2014.There are a total of 27 ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) members, and the list comprises Bangladesh, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, China, Cambodia, the European Union, Canada, India, Japan, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, United States, Timor -Leste, and Vietnam.The ASEAN states are also associated by the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the ten member states along with Dialogue Partners Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand.The ASEAN Regional Forum is a platform that plays a vital role in security dialogue in the Indo-Pacific.The ARF provides a space where ASEAN leaders and ARF members discuss security matters and problems that these member countries might be facing, and together come up with measures that can be taken to promote peace and security of the concerned regions.With its first meeting held in the year 1994, the ARF was established in the year 1994 and is one of the oldest of ASEAN centrality organizations, including ASEAN+1, ASEAN+3, ADMM-Plus, and East Asia Summit.ASEAN was also given the status of an observer at the UN General Assembly in 2006. ASEAN, in return, has added the UN as its ‘dialogue partner’.The Purpose and Functions of ASEANThe first objective of ASEAN involved the acceleration of economic growth, along with social and cultural progress. Secondly, the organization encouraged regional stability and peace built on the rule of law and principles of the United Nations charter. Find out its goals in detail below:The Association of Southeast Asian Nations set out their aim at the ASEAN Declaration. This included working towards accelerating economic growth, cultural development, social progress, fostering collaboration and mutual assistance in areas with common goals, and providing training and research facilities to each other.Its aim and purposes also included collaboration to promote better utilization of the agriculture and industrial sector, and thus help each other in raising the living standards of the people of the member countries.The ASEAN members also aimed for promoting Southeast Asian Studies and maintaining a close and beneficial unity with other international organizations that shared similar interests.The first five ASEAN countries were driven by the shared fear of the spread of communism.Since the fall of Saigon and the conclusion of the Vietnam War in April 1975, as well as the decline of SEATO, local member states of the ASEAN group have achieved greater cohesion.During the ’70s, the region’s economic growth allowed ASEAN to respond firmly and unified to Vietnam’s invasion and a short border dispute with China, a neighboring country as well as a former communist ally of its member, Cambodia.The first ASEAN summit in Bali in 1976 ended with an agreement on numerous developmental projects that focused on the industrial sector along with the officialization of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and a Declaration of Concord.Post-Cold War, ASEAN countries gained enough power to exert greater independence. This also helped them emerge as one of the leading voices when it comes to regional security and trade.The ASEAN also signed the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 1995 to help create a peaceful region that was free from nuclear weapons.Members of the ASEAN assembled on December 15, 2008, in Jakarta to launch the ASEAN charter, which was signed in November 2007, aimed at moving the ASEAN closer to becoming a community like the European Union.As part of the ASEAN charter, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations became a legal entity, and a single free-trade zone was established, which included 500 million people.The ASEAN summit is always governed by a standing committee that is constituted of the foreign minister of the hosting country and the ambassadors of the other countries.By the end of the ASEAN summit in January 2007, the ASEAN members also confirmed their need for the establishment of an ASEAN Community. The leaders officialized the community by signing the Cebu Declaration on the Acceleration of the Establishment of an ASEAN Community by 2015.The ASEAN Community is constituted of three pillar communities, namely ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community, and ASEAN Sociocultural Community.A key goal of the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) is to foster regional peace as well as a just, democratic, and harmonious environment.The ASEAN Economic Community is, basically, the culmination of the region’s end goal of economic integration. The AEC aims to create ASEAN as a single market and production base. It envisages an economically competitive region with unbiased economic progress and a non-discriminatory global economy.The Blueprint for ASCC 2025 was approved by the ASEAN members during the ASEAN summit in 2015. Understanding its nation’s prospects and nurturing cultural diversity is what the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community is all about.The AEC was finally established in the year 2015.Laos and Myanmar had largely ASEAN-oriented foreign trade and had low intra-ASEAN trade, but by the end of 2010, most of its trade involved exports to countries outside the ASEAN member regions.In 2009, the realized foreign direct investment (FDI) was around $37.9 billion.In December 1995, the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok established the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services (AFAS), under which ASEAN members attended a few subsequent rounds of negotiations that were carried out to liberalize trade in services in return for a stronger commitment.The negotiations were concluded with seven packages of commitments under the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Trade in Services.As of July 2017, ASEAN has officially approved to identify eight professions through Mutual Recognition Agreements: physicians, dentists, nurses, architects, engineers, accountants, surveyors, and tourism professionals.ASEAN has also initiated the concept of the Asian Currency Unit (ACU) by the mid - ’90s, which was actually sparked by the Asian financial crisis of 1977.Establishing the ASEAN Community marks a milestone in ASEAN’s journey over nearly half a century and demonstrates the ASEAN Member States’ success in joining as one community.The strategic location of ASEAN right at the center of the Indo-Pacific region has facilitated ASEAN’s efforts to help prevent territorial disputes, notably in the South China Sea.An arbitration case for the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, decided on July 12, 2016, involved a claim brought against China for its effective control of maritime features in the South China Sea.ASEAN has also helped boost the economic progress in Southeast Asia significantly. It has also been predicted that within a few decades, the ASEAN countries might truly overshadow the European Union. However, although this is just a prediction and can’t be assured, the region is expected to develop rapidly, both in terms of its economic power and influence on world trade.ASEAN countries account for 7% of global exports, while trade with the United States has grown by 62% since 2002, making it the fourth-largest exporting region in the world, behind only the European Union, North America, and China.As a consequence of the abolition of visa requirements between ASEAN countries, intra-ASEAN travel has also grown rapidly.Following the establishment of the Sub-Committee on Tourism (SCOT) within the ASEAN Committee on Trade and Tourism in 1977, cooperation in tourism was also formalized.The ASEAN tourism sector has been one of the most resilient sectors of the economy during times of global economic uncertainty. ASEAN’s wide range of tourist attractions attracted 107 million tourists in 2015, which is almost twice the 65.7 million tourists recorded in 2009.The organization also made efforts for cultural unity in the region by organizing different events, including sports and educational activities, such as the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, ASEAN Heritage Parks, and the ASEAN Outstanding Scientist and Technologist Award.

You must have heard your Political Science teacher mentioning something about the association that is related to the word ‘Asian’.