ASEAN

Official Name:
Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Editor's note: The information in this article has been compiled and edited from the 1992 and 2001 ASEAN Background Notes and Fact Sheets made available in 2001 and 2002 from the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.

PROFILE
GEOGRAPHY
HISTORY
INSTITUTIONS
ECONOMY
"U.S.-ASEAN RELATIONS"

PROFILE

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand to promote political and economic cooperation and regional stability. U.S. relations with ASEAN have been excellent since its inception.

The ASEAN chairmanship rotates annually on an alphabetical basis. The current chair is Vietnam.

The ASEAN Declaration in 1976, considered ASEAN's foundation document, formalized the principles of peace and cooperation to which ASEAN is dedicated.

Brunei joined in 1984, shortly after its independence from the United Kingdom, and Vietnam joined ASEAN as its seventh member in 1995. Laos and Burma were admitted into full membership in July 1997 as ASEAN celebrated its 30th anniversary. Cambodia became ASEAN's tenth member in 1999.

The Association commands far greater influence on Asia-Pacific trade, political, and security issues than its members could achieve individually. ASEAN's success has been based largely on its use of consultation, consensus, and cooperation.

ASEAN took the first steps toward an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1993, when it agreed to eliminate most tariffs on manufactured goods between members over the following decade.

Every year following the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in July, ASEAN holds its Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC), where it meets with its ten Dialogue Partners. These are Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States. The Secretary participated in the July 2000 meeting in Bangkok.

In 1994, ASEAN took the lead in establishing the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which now has 23 members and meets each year at the ministerial level just before the PMC. The ARF is the only region-wide governmental security forum. Its goal is to promote regional stability and peace, and it is now looking at the overlap between confidence building measures, where it has been active, and preventive diplomacy.

GEOGRAPHY

Located in Southeast Asia on the Malay Peninsula and the islands to the south and east in the South China Sea, the ten ASEAN states adjoin some of the most important sea lanes in the world. The ASEAN states lie astride the Equator and extend from roughly 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi.) north to 800 kilometers (500 mi.) south.

HISTORY

ASEAN was founded officially on August 8, 1967, with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by the foreign ministers of the original five members. The organization was created to strengthen regional cohesion and self-reliance through economic, social, and cultural cooperation. It developed slowly during its first decade, partly because of diverse economic interests, varied historical experience, and the initially fragile political ties among the five original states.

Brunei Darussalam, formerly a British protectorate, joined ASEAN as its sixth member state in January 1984, shortly after attainment of full independence.

To curb external interference, in 1971 the ASEAN nations set as their goal the establishment of a zone of peace, freedom, and neutrality (ZOPFAN) for Southeast Asia, and this was included in the Bali Declaration signed by the ASEAN heads of government in 1976. This concept remains a long-term objective.

The fall of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975 led to a new phase of ASEAN relations. In 1976, the first ASEAN summit conference was convened in Bali, Indonesia, and collaboration among ASEAN states took a major step forward with the signing of the Declaration of ASEAN Concord. Aimed at promoting cooperative activities in industry, trade, and other fields, this declaration remains the major "constitutional base" for ASEAN cooperation. It also authorized the formation of the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

Growing Cooperation

The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, starting in December 1978, played a key role in furthering ASEAN collaboration. During the 1980s, the ASEAN nations successfully managed passage of yearly UN General Assembly resolutions calling for an end to Vietnamese occupation and were instrumental in the 1991 peace settlement in Cambodia. These accomplishments and the political cooperation thus fostered have been ASEAN's major political achievements.

Diverse economic interests and levels of development have limited the extent of economic cooperation between member nations. However, the collapse of international commodity prices in the mid-1980s and the subsequent downturn in the economies of several ASEAN nations spurred regional leaders to initiate serious economic reforms and trade liberalization plans. The December 1987 ASEAN summit gave new impetus to reducing internal trade barriers and establishing joint industrial projects; it also fostered closer coordination on economic issues by ASEAN governments, particularly in international forums. The 1989 creation of APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, an informal economic grouping of the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and ASEAN, which expanded in 1991 to include the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) has provided an additional important venue in which ASEAN representatives can meet and discuss issues of broader regional importance. ASEAN economic ministers in 1991 agreed to move toward an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). The decision to create AFTA was taken by ASEAN heads of government at the fourth ASEAN summit in January 1992.

INSTITUTIONS

Since its inception, ASEAN gradually has developed a number of formal, regular consultative meetings and committees, but it has only a very limited permanent structure. Decisions are made by consensus and often are achieved through informal, ad hoc consultations. However, there are several formal bodies that consult and make decisions on various common issues.

Foreign Ministers' Meetings

The periodic meetings of the six foreign ministers constitute the principal decision-making body for ASEAN. In addition to their regular annual sessions in June or July, the foreign ministers gather on other occasions as needed. The venue of the ministerial meetings rotates annually among the six countries.

The foreign ministers' meetings have assumed a prominent role partially as a result of events in Indochina. Recognizing the importance of a unified front on the Cambodia question, ASEAN has used the foreign ministers' consultations to reaffirm their common stand. Periodic meetings of senior officials plan for and supplement the work of the foreign ministers. In addition, an ASEAN Standing Committee, composed of ambassadors resident in the venue of the ministerial meeting and chaired by the foreign minister of the host country, meets as needed.

Economic Ministers' Meetings

The economic ministers usually meet twice a year to discuss common approaches to economic questions and to review cooperative programs. Decisions on economic questions are then referred to the foreign ministers or heads of government for final approval. Various sectoral committees, subcommittees, and working groups have been established to deal with specific economic and social issues. Regular ministerial consultations also are held in such sectors as labor, social welfare, education, energy, and information.

The ASEAN Secretariat

The ASEAN Secretariat is located in Jakarta in a headquarters building provided by the Indonesian Government. The ASEAN states have not favored development of a strong central coordinating authority. The Secretariat is limited in size and is tasked mainly with serving the various ministerial meetings and committees. It has been suggested that the Secretariat might serve as a regional research, information, and statistical center, but this and other roles have not yet been authorized.

Complementing the ASEAN Secretariat, each government maintains its own National Secretariat in its Foreign Ministry; these vary in size and function. The six National Secretariats are responsible to their own governments.

ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC)

ASEAN began establishing "Dialogue Partner" relationships in 1977 with countries that have major interests in the region. There are now ten Dialogue Partners. Each July, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meet with the Dialogue Partners at the Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC), immediately following the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, thus the name "PMC."

In recent years, ASEAN has been struggling to redefine the PMC and find a useful place for it between the ARF with its security portfolio and APEC with its economic agenda. The last several PMCs focused increasingly on international economic and political issues and on transnational issues, such as crime, narcotics, trafficking in persons, environment, and health. This year, however, transnational issues were omitted from the PMC agenda.

The U.S. feels that the PMC has an important role in ASEAN's relations with the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. We believe it could most usefully serve as a forum for discussing transnational issues and political issues outside the region, subjects not covered by either ARF or APEC. Transnational issues are threats common to all PMC participants. ASEAN identified them as priority concerns for the ASEAN region in its own 1998 Hanoi Plan of Action (HPA). We hope the PMC will return to a discussion of transnational issues next year.

ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) draws together 23 countries involved in the security of the Asia-Pacific region. The ARF, which first met in 1994, provides a forum in which members can discuss regional political and security issues and develop cooperative measures to contribute to the maintenance of peace and security and the avoidance of conflict.

ARF meetings are held at the Foreign Minister level, annually in late July, in conjunction with the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC). Chairmanship of the ARF is in line with the annual rotation of the Chairmanship of ASEAN. The principal formal ARF document is the ARF Chairman's Statement issued after every ARF ministerial meeting. The Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) and the Inter-Sessional Support Group on Confidence Building Measures (ISG/CBMs) support the work of Ministers.

The ARF is characterized by minimal institutionalization and consensus decision-making. Participants have agreed on a three-stage evolution of confidence-building, preventive diplomacy and, in the longer term, approaches to conflict resolution. The ARF's work program includes encouragement and development of confidence-building measures, such as promoting participation in international arms control and non-proliferation regimes and the production of Annual Security Outlooks by participating states. Since 2000, the ARF has begun to develop its preventive diplomacy function, focusing on concepts and principles of preventive diplomacy as a framework for ARF activities. Specific tools are foreseen in efforts to enhance the role of the ARF Chair develop an experts/eminent persons register.

The 23 members of ASEAN Regional Forum include the ten members of ASEAN plus Russia, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

The U.S. strongly supports the ARF and has sponsored or co-sponsored several confidence-building measures and ARF workshops, notably on preventive diplomacy. Development of multilateral approaches to regional concerns will enhance regional peace, security, and stability and promote improved relations between and among states of the Asia-Pacific region and their partners from outside the region.

ECONOMY

The ASEAN region is one of the world's economic success stories in agriculture, industry, and trade. The economies range from resource-rich but still largely agricultural Indonesia, to the highly industrialized city-state of Singapore. The ASEAN nations are mainly committed to market- and export-oriented economic growth strategies. Their dynamic economies averaged annual GDP growth of about 7% during the 1970s but experienced stagnation or recession in the mid-1980s due to slackening world trade and deteriorating commodity and oil prices. Since the late 1980s, growth rates have increased steadily and in 1990 ranged from 2.1% for the Philippines to 12% for Thailand; the combined ASEAN economies grew 7.6% in 1990.

Except for Singapore and Brunei, the ASEAN economies are still largely agricultural, producing commodities such as rubber, palm oil, rice, copra, and coffee for export, though manufacturing sectors in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia are of increasing importance in each economy. Singapore has a highly diversified commercial and industrial economy, with growing emphasis on the service sector. Commercialized cultivation and processing of primary agricultural products are important industries in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. ASEAN accounts for 72% of world exports of rubber and is the world's largest source of tropical timber. Mineral resources include 26% of the world's tin exports and significant amounts of copper, coal, nickel, and tungsten. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei are important energy exporters, producing most of East Asia's petroleum and natural gas.

U.S.-ASEAN RELATIONS

ASEAN Cooperation Plan

Secretary Powell announced the ASEAN Cooperation Plan (ACP) in Brunei on August 1, 2002. The purpose of the ACP is to enhance U.S. relations with ASEAN, the key institution fostering stability and development in Southeast Asia. In close consultation with ASEAN, the U.S. will develop a program of cooperation in three areas:

Support for ASEAN Integration. ASEAN's future depends on its success in integrating its less developed newer members with its more developed older members. In consultation with Congress, the U.S. Government would seek to expand assistance to ASEAN, especially its newer members, on economic development and investment, good governance, rule of law, democratization, and civil society.

Cooperation on Transnational Issues. ASEAN has requested U.S. assistance in addressing transnational challenges -- particularly narcotics, terrorism, piracy, the environment, HIV/AIDS, and trafficking in persons. These are also high priority issues for the U.S.

Strengthen ASEAN Secretariat. A strengthened Secretariat could better support the Chair and provide ASEAN with needed expertise and continuity. The U.S. would work with ASEAN to assist in building the Secretariat's capabilities to serve the Chair and the ASEAN member nations.

ASEAN

Members:

Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.

Regional Forum (ARF) Members:

The ten members of ASEAN plus Russia, Mongolia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, India, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

Senior ASEAN and U.S. government officials have discussed initial cooperation in the fields of biotechnology, health and infectious diseases, trafficking in persons, disaster response and management, and information and communications technology. Specific activities in these fields will include training, personnel exchanges, policy dialogues, and communications support for ASEAN and the ASEAN Secretariat. The first activities under the ACP will begin in early 2003.

The ACP is coordinated by the Department of State with participation by a number of Departments and agencies of the U.S. government. It complements the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI), announced by President Bush on October 26, 2002, which is designed to enhance U.S. commercial relations with ASEAN and its members. Cooperative activities under the ACP may also include state and local governments interested in ASEAN, business associations, private business, nongovernmental organizations, other governments, and international organizations. Through the ACP, the United States intends to deepen its relations with Southeast Asia, a region of growing international importance, and its flagship, ASEAN. ASEAN members are partners in the global war on terrorism and other security issues. ASEAN has a population of 500 million and is an increasingly integrated market with which U.S. two-way trade rose to nearly $120 billion in 2001, making it our third largest overseas market.

Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI)

In October 2002, President George W. Bush announced an important new trade initiative with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - the Enterprise for ASEAN Initiative (EAI) - designed to enhance already close U.S. ties with ASEAN.

The EAI offers the prospect of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between the United States and ASEAN countries that are committed to economic reforms and openness. The goal is to create a network of bilateral FTAs, which will increase trade and investment, tying more closely together our economies and our futures. The EAI initiative will encourage both bilateral and regional liberalization, and help APEC reach the Bogor goals for achieving free and open trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region.

This initiative will generate significant benefits for both the United States and ASEAN. The ASEAN countries are anticipating solid economic growth in the years ahead and, with ASEAN's population of 500 million, the opportunities for U.S. companies are enormous:

Two-way trade reached nearly $120 billion in 2001, making ASEAN the United States' third largest overseas market.

U.S.-ASEAN two-way trade in services totaled $16 billion in 2000, up 55% since the WTO was established, and holds significant growth potential.

With relatively high tariffs on agricultural products (averaging 25% to 48%) and tariff-rate quotas on products of interest to the United States, current U.S. agricultural exports to ASEAN countries of $2.6 billion could expand significantly.

U.S. exports to ASEAN countries support nearly 800,000 high-paying American jobs from Alaska to Florida.

Editor's Update
April 2004

A report on important events that have taken place since the last State Department revision of these notes.

ASEAN held its ninth summit since 1976 in October 2003 in Bali, Indonesia. ASEAN members pledged to continue efforts to meet the objectives of ASEAN Vision 2020, outlined in 1997. ASEAN aims to create a community by 2020 that rests on three pillars: a security community, an economic community, and a socio-cultural community. ASEAN members plan to deepen regional economic integration and to protect the region's stability and security from external interference.

At the ninth summit, ASEAN members agreed to intensify efforts to prevent, counter, and suppress the activities of terrorist groups in the region. The summit leaders also welcomed what were regarded as positive developments in Burma (Myanmar) and its government's pledge to bring about a transition to democracy. The leaders agreed that sanctions on Burma would not be helpful in promoting the peace and stability essential for democracy to take root.

As well, ASEAN members recognized that developments in Iraq and the Middle East remained a cause for great concern. ASEAN believes the United Nations must play a central role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq. The organization supports the "road map" for peace designed to end violence between Israel and the Palestinians and to create a viable Palestinian state.

ASEAN also held a summit on SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in April 2003 after the outbreak of the disease in China in November 2002. SARS spread throughout Southeast Asia and as far as South Africa and Canada. By July 2003, the World Health Organization reported the SARS epidemic had been contained. But over 800 people had died from the disease and over 8,400 had become infected by that date. ASEAN member states pledged to strengthen cooperation among health agencies to share information and strengthen early warning systems to deal with and prevent the spread of SARS and other communicable diseases.

For ASEAN, this initiative will help boost trade and redirect investment back to the ASEAN region.