ASEAN stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Established in 1967, ASEAN currently has 10 members and replaced the Association of Southeast Asia. The organization promotes cooperation and facilitates integration among its members and other countries in Asia on a range of issues, including the economy, politics, security and education.
Click through the tabs below to learn more about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Members of ASEAN
Structure of ASEAN
What has been achieved by ASEAN?
Influence of ASEAN
Members of ASEAN
There are currently 10 members of ASEAN:
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Myanmar
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Vietnam
The most populated member state is Indonesia, with a population of around 267 million. The least populated member state is Brunei, which is home to around 459,000 people. Together, the member states are home to around 625 million people.
ASEAN originally founded on 8 August 1967 with just five members – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
As well as the member states, there are other countries involved in the work of ASEAN, including as observers. Papua New Guinea and East Timor are regular observers of ASEAN, but China, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand have all also observed meetings of the organization.
‘ASEAN Plus Three Nation States’ was created to further extended regional cooperation and describes the 10 members of ASEAN, plus China, Japan and South Korea.
Structure of ASEAN
ASEAN was originally founded during the Cold War and the alliance was designed to promoted stability in the South East Asia region. Today, ASEAN holds summits where heads of government of each of the member states meet, looking to discuss and resolve regional issues. Meetings and summits are also held to develop relations with countries outside of the bloc.
In 2001, the organisation decided to meet annually to look at urgent issues but in December 2008, the ASEAN Charter was adopted, leading to an ASEAN Summit being held twice a year.
The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) is formally associated with ASEAN but is a weak assembly with only consultative powers. Unlike other parliaments, the AIPA can’t make laws or oversee ASEAN and its members.
What has been achieved by ASEAN?
ASEAN has achieved significant success in multiple areas. Here are some examples of what ASEAN has achieved to date;
- Significant successful integration and cooperation between member states and other countries in Asia.
- Helped to reduce poverty from 47% in 1990 to 14% in 2015
- Agreement on ASEAN Food Security Reserve signed in 1979 and ASEAN Food Safety Network developed.
- Cooperation, training and support facilitated in the agricultural industry
- Strong economic growth and introduction of Free Trade Area
- Visa-free travel between ASEAN member states, boosting intra-ASEAN travel
There have though been some failures by the association and challenges that it has faced.
- The unity of ASEAN has been affected on multiple occasions due to several territorial disputes. In particular, there have been multiple disputes in the South China Sea.
- ASEAN has worked to come to environmental agreements, however, attempts to control haze pollution have often been unsuccessful.
- There have been some claims that ASEAN has only weakly promoted human rights and has failed to effectively deal with refugee crises.
Influence of ASEAN
ASEAN is seen by many as an increasingly important player in global politics. If ASEAN were a country, it would rank as the 7th largest economy in the world and is only expected to move higher up such rankings in the coming decades.
While it has been criticised in some areas, it has achieved a lot since its formation and has strong relations with other countries in Asia and beyond.
