ASEAN today

ASEAN was established on 8 August, 1967, through the signing of the ASEAN Declaration in Bangkok, Thailand, the organisation has 5 ‘founding fathers’, which namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since the formation, its membership has expanded and included Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Cambodia. After the change of power and the end of Vietnam War, this area experienced a dynamic economic growth and the organisation was strengthened in 1970s. After the formation, all member states have experienced a continuous growth and it seems the organisation is running properly. According to the ASEAN Declaration, the aims and purposes of the organisation and can summarised as:

1. To accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations;

2. To promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter;

3. To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields;

4.To provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres;

5.To collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of their agriculture and industries, the expansion of their trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the improvement of their transportation and communications facilities and the raising of the living standards of their peoples;

6. To promote Southeast Asian studies; and

7. To maintain close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes, and explore all avenues for even closer cooperation among themselves.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EU AND ASEAN:

Similarities:

1. Both are regional organisations with legal personalities.

2. Both were founded to promote peace. EU was founded after two disastrous world wars for the purpose to prevent the recurrence of war through economic integration. Similarly, a major aim of Asean was to create a regional peaceful environment in South-east Asia, so that the Asean countries could focus their energies on their economic development.

3. Both organisations share a commitment to human rights. For EU, there is the Charter of Fundamental Rights while ASEAN also has a declaration of the human rights.

4. Both Asean and the EU have concluded many free trade agreements or comprehensive economic partnership agreements with other countries. For EU, it was in negotiation with Singapore for a trade agreement. China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand all have economic agreement with the ASEAN.

5. Both ASEAN and the EU are likely to include important external partners when they are organising regular political and economic dialogues. EU regularly holds annual summits with countries including the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The ASEAN also has Asean Regional Forum, Asean Plus Three and the East Asia Summit. In addition, ASEAN has bilateral dialogues with its 10 dialogue partners; an annual summit with the US, China, India, Japan and South Korea.

Differences:

Additionally, there is an exception to the consensus rule in the ASEAN: economic agreements can be adopted by a majority, using the "Asean minus X" formula. The logic is that the majority can proceed first and the minority will catch up later.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH SURROUNDING REGIONS AND COUNTRIES:

ASEAN was established by the governments of the Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in 1967 to promote economic growth, social and cultural development, as well as peace and security in Southeast Asia. Other members included Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei. ASEAN summit meeting occurs semi-annually and bring together the heads of the state member countries, there are also annual conferences for foreign ministers. These forums were seen as a way to create a trade bloc against EU and the US.

The ASEAN Plus Three was known as China, the Republic of Korea and Japan while the ASEAN Plus Six included Australia, India and New Zealand. The East Asia Summit is a meeting of the ASEAN Plus Six together with Russia and the United States, in which topics such as finance, agriculture, industry, trade and transportation are widely discussed.

Maritime disputes in the South China Sea have been the biggest problem among the ASEAN members. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam share overlapping claims to features in contested water with China. China’s moves to reclaim land and build artificial islands are threatening and seen as violations of national sovereignty.

On the other hand, ASEAN members are anxious of becoming over reliant and dependent on China.

ASEAN members have been divided by their ties with China and the United States. The United States is ASEAN’s fourth largest trading partner and accounts for 9.4% of ASEAN’s total trade. The United States also launched initiatives to boost ties with Southeast Asia in order to deepen cooperation between them. For example, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam are active on issues related to environment, health, education and infrastructure development. Four ASEAN members also joined the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement between 12 nations.

PROBLEMS OF ASEAN:

As a massive region with a dense population, the path of economic integration of ASEAN is always challenging. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was formally established in 2015, which aimed for forming a highly integrated and cohesive economy, pursuing sustained highly economic growth and becoming a global ASEAN (AEC Blueprint 2025). However, there are huge differences on the level of economic development and development models among ASEAN members. For instance, Singapore and Brunei have reached the threshold of developed nations in terms of their GDP while Laos and Cambodia are still to some extend struggling for settling subsistence problems. Apart from issues within the system, the conflicts between regional integration and external wave of economic integration have also hindered the progress. The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP, which evolved into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP) which dominated by America, have also signed by four ASEAN members. So, what would these nations prioritize when the interests of TPP contradict to their regional AEC? TPP is criticized to have negative implications with economies of ASEAN members in long term by spearheading their effort of establishment of common economic rules and stable development within the region.

However, the more pressing issues are political and security alliance within ASEAN for confronting common pressure from other countries as the potential of destabilizing factors would adversely affect further integration progress of ASEAN. Indeed, members would put their internal differences aside and present a unified position for their common interests on some global political disputes. For example, the South China Sea issue with regards to the disputed water. They may seem to have a much powerful presence or attitude to strive for themselves. The progress made in the 31st ASEAN Summit Meetings in Manila to work on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea with China indicates this. Such political integration movement may on the other hand, help keeping at bay any unwanted American interference in the region. Are ASEAN members achieve truly synergy or consensus on international affairs or are they just temporarily united for interests of peace or competitiveness construction. The complicity of historical disputes and political distances among members, the conflicts between further all-aspect corporation and integration and respecting state sovereignty, and the criticisms on democratization and human rights or any other political interference from international community would constantly challenge regional political stability and securities of ASEAN.

Other than the Vision goal of building Economy Community and Political-Security Community by 2025, the objective for achieving Socio-Cultural Community had formed since the 14th ASEAN Summit. However, Malaysian scholar argues that the effort of building ASEAN is limited in the cycle of governments, elite classes and institutions, citizens rarely get the opportunities to experience the result of the inter co-operation between the ASEAN countries, despite the association’s effort to develop social framework. Ordinary people in different member countries are actually lack of communication and common identity as ASEAN citizens. Moreover, gaps among members on social welfare system, social justice and rights or legislation process makes ASEAN far away from a genuinely inclusive community.

RECENT ICONIC EVENTS:

In October 2003, the Bali Concord II issued by the 9th ASEAN summit announced that it will establish an ASEAN community with three pillars security integration, economic integration and social and cultural integration by 2020. The ASEAN Charter adopted at the 13th ASEAN Summit in November 2007 formally confirmed the status of the three pillars.

• Security Integration

The ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) is established to focus in the field of political and security integration.There are three key features of APSC: The first is to have a common community of values and rules based. Followed by the establishment of a cohesive, peaceful, stable and flexible regional organizations to jointly undertake the maintenance of comprehensive with the responsibility of safety. The last one is to become a dynamic extroverted organization in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world.

APSC issued the blueprint (2009-2015) proposed about 150 specific actions to achieve its goal. Those actions includes political development, rule-making, conflict prevention and resolution, post-conflict peacebuilding, set and implement mechanisms. Under this blueprint, the APSC aims to ensure that ASEAN member countries live in a fair, democratic and harmonious environment.

• Economic Integration

Among the three pillars, the difficulty of construction the economic community is relatively low, the progress is much faster and more attractive. The purpose of establishing an integrated economic community is to accelerate economics growth, enhance trade development in the region. According to the blueprint of the economic community, this is a region with balanced development, strong economic competitiveness and a high level of integration with the global economy. And it will become a single market with 600 million population in the near future.

To achieve its goal, ASEAN member states have drastically reduced the level of tariffs in the region over the years and gradually reduced their non-tariff barriers. Adjusting technical standards and simplifying customs formalities has greatly facilitated the liberalization of goods, services, investment, labor and capital mobility. In 2014, the total GDP of the 10 ASEAN countries reached 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars. The ASEAN Free Trade Area Tariff levels have been reduced to zero or close to zero, this greatly reduced the price of commodity circulation, reduced the difficulty for enterprises to enter all countries in this region.

• Social and Cultural integration

The goal of the ASEAN Social and Cultural Community is to build a community that is people-oriented and socially responsible and will continue to upgrade east unity, safeguard the integrity of ASEAN countries. Social and cultural community is committed to build identity, build a harmonious and inclusive society and enhance people's welfare and life level.

According to the blueprint, the ASEAN Social and Cultural Community mainly involves the following six aspects:

1. Humanistic development: including promoting education prioritization, investing in human resources development and promoting information and communication technologies;

2. Social welfare and protection: including poverty alleviation, promoting social security and medical care, and improving food safety;

3. Social justice and rights: including the protection of the well-being and rights of women, children, the elderly and the disabled, promotion of enterprises industry social responsibility;

4. Ensure environmental sustainability: including addressing environmental issues, promoting the sustainable use of the marine environment, sustainable use of water resources, coping with climate change and its impacts;

5. Establishing ASEAN identity: including enhancing ASEAN community awareness, protecting ASEAN cultural heritage and enhancing culture creativity;

6. Reduce the development gap.