ASEAN- Association of

Southeast Asian Nations

[UPSC Notes]

What is ASEAN?
ASEAN is the short form for the association of Southeast Asian nations. In order to establish a
peaceful cultural and economic growth development of Southeast Asian territory, several
authorities coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore founded
the ASEAN in 1967. The headquarters of ASEAN is situated in Jakarta, Indonesia.

It is an organization made to establish social and political stability amidst the rising clashes in
the Asia Pacific Postcolonial States. The working motto of ASEAN is ‘One Vision, One Identity,
One Community. ASEAN greatly influences the Asia Pacific trading political and security-related
matters. The secretariat of ASEAN is situated in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The
Chairmanship of ASEAN rotates annually, based on the alphabetical order of the English names
of Member States.
The purpose of establishing such a group was to boost economic growth along with the social,
cultural, and prosperous security and peaceful community of Southeast Asian nations.
Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, and Cambodia are the countries that joined ASEAN later.

ASEAN Members
Following is the list of Members of ASEAN:

Members Year Joined

Thailand Founding member
The Philippines Founding member
Malaysia Founding member
Singapore Founding member
Indonesia Founding member
Brunei 1985
 Vietnam 1995
Lao PDR 1997
Myanmar 1997
Cambodia 1999

History of ASEAN
On 8 August 1967, five leaders, the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand at Bangkok, Thailand signed a document. By virtue of that document,
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into effect. The five Foreign
Ministers who signed it – Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun
Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore, and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – would
subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the most successful inter-
governmental organization in the developing world today.
The document, known as the ASEAN Declaration, declared the establishment of an Association
for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spelled out the aims and purposes of that
Association.
The ASEAN Declaration stipulated that the Association would be open for participation by all
States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It
proclaimed ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind
themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices,
secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity.

Ministerial Bodies of ASEAN

The ASEAN Charter established four important new Ministerial bodies to support the ASEAN
Summit, viz.:
• ASEAN Political-Security Community Council.
• ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council.
• ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC).
• ASEAN Economic Community Council.

Institutional Mechanisms of ASEAN

Let's discuss the institutional mechanism of ASEAN for the upcoming IAS Exam

Chairmanship
The chairmanship of the ASEAN countries keeps on rotating every year based on the
alphabetic chronology of English names of the member countries. The ASEAN 2021
meeting was held in Brunie and 2022 was held in Cambodia.
Ministerial Council
The Ministerial Council involves four major and new bodies-
1. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council
2. ASEAN Economic Community Council
3. ASEAN Political-Security Community Council
4. ASEAN Coordinating Council

Decision Making
The decisions made at the summits among the members is purely consensual and
based on consultations among the member countries of the group.

ASEAN Summit
ASEAN Summit is the supreme policy-making body. ASEAN summit is the highest level
of authority for policy and objectives within the region. In accordance with the charter,
this ASEAN Summit is organised twice a year.

ASEAN-X
The ASEAN-X formula allows member states who are ready to participate to take the
initiative; those who require additional time can apply for a flexible timeline if all
members of states agree to it.

Objectives of ASEAN
The prime objective of ASEAN is to induce the proactive engagement of the countries
on the basis of cultural economic scientific administrative subjects. Other objectives of
ASEAN include:
• To maintain a strong bond and mutual relationship with the Global countries and
territorial organizations.
• To work together efficiently and enhance and increase the use of the agriculture
industry, expand commerce and transportation and raise the quality of life of the
citizens of the country.
• To work in the favour of fostering regional harmony and security through
adherence to maintaining proper rules and regulations and confirming its UN
charter ideals.
• ASEAN also assists the member countries in the field of education,
administration, and technical and professional domains.

Principles of ASEAN
The basic and fundamental principles of ASEAN include mutual respect for the
sovereignty, equality, and national identity of all the countries. It focuses on:
• Giving the right to every state for leading their countries without any external
interference or subversions.
 • Settle down the disputes or differences among the countries in a peaceful and
harmonious manner.
• Suhav a proper communication and cooperation among the participating and
surrounding countries.

Significance of ASEAN
From the sight of a global marketplace ASEAN is the biggest player even bigger than the
European Union and North America together. Because of this much significance, ASEAN has
become the world's 4th most common location for investment. ASEAN is the 3rd largest market
in the world, the 6th largest economy in the world and 3rd in Asia. The share of ASEAN has
increased from 2% to 7% from 1967 to 2016 in the World Export system. This shows that
trading is significantly increasing in ASEAN’s financial possibilities.

ASEAN Led Forums

The important ASEAN-led forums include:
• ASEAN Regional Forum- It is a twenty-seven-member multilateral grouping that was
developed to facilitate cooperation on political and security issues to contribute to
regional confidence-building and preventive diplomacy.

• ASEAN Plus Three- ASEAN Plus Three was established in 1997. It is a consultative
body that gathers along with the ten countries of ASEAN and China, Japan, and South
Korea.

• The East-Asia Summit- The Summit is generally and mostly addressed by the big
Nations like India, New Zealand, Russia, Australia, the US, etc. This summit works to
enhance Regional Cooperation and development.

India and ASEAN

India is not a permanent member of ASEAN although it often participates in the ASEAN lead
forums like the Defence Forum and East-Asia Summit. Being a non-member of Asian India still
emphasizes and acknowledges the significance of ASEAN to the Indo-Pacific occasionally.
India and ASEAN are natural partners in the desire to create free and inclusive regional
architecture.
India's relationship with ASEAN is a key pillar of her foreign policy and the foundation of Act
East Policy. India and ASEAN already have 25 years of Dialogue Partnership, 15 years of
Summit Level interaction and 5 years of Strategic Partnership with ASEAN.

Economic Cooperation
ASEAN is India's fourth-largest trading partner.
 • India and ASEAN share the trade worth approximately $ 24 billion, which is 10%
of total Indian trading.
• In terms of the total exports, 11.28% goes to the ASEAN. Founded in 2003, the
ASEAN India-Business Council is a unified forum for private sector players from
India and ASEAN countries.

Financial Assistance
India gains its Financial Assistance from different funds like-
• ASEAN- India Green Funds
• ASEAN- India Cooperation Fund
• ASEAN- India S&T Development Fund

Projects
Networking activities Research and advocacy will be undertaken with the Indian and
Asian organizations and their think tanks.

Security
Keeping the Indo-Pacific growth and security vision in mind, India keeps ASEAN at the
core of its political security Corporation.

Socio-Cultural Cooperation
India takes care of the Socio-Cultural Cooperation and organizes various inter-national
activities like boosting the interaction among the members, inviting the students of
ASEAN countries to India, providing courses to the ASEAN diplomats, and
interchanging the parliamentarians.

Delhi Declaration and Delhi Dialogue

The Delhi Declaration talks about the corporation in the Maritime Domain and is
identified as one of ASEAN's India's key areas of Cooperation.
The Delhi Dialogue is an annual track 1.5 event to discuss the issues like
economic, political, and security between ASEAN and India.

Challenges to ASEAN
The challenges associated with ASEAN are
• Several regional imbalances exist among its individual markets in terms of
economics and social conditions.
• ASEAN member states have a mixed record on income inequality and a huge
gap between the economically sound and poor States.
• The underdeveloped countries faced resource constraints and were unable to
implement many regional commitments in their national plans.
• The communist and authoritarian states are equally represented at this platform
along with the democracies in the world.
• Among all the rifts in the organisation the South China Sea is the most
destabilising factor.
• Human rights have been a contentious issue within ASEAN. For instance, the
crackdown against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
• ASEAN faces difficulty in negotiating a unified response to China's maritime
claims in the South China Sea.
• It has the disadvantage of awarding difficult problems rather than facing them.
They focus more on consensus which is sometimes a major drawback.