ASEAN Integration – how did it evolve?

Established in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, ASEAN was the first regional institution in Asia comprised solely of indigenous Asian powers.  It has since expanded so that by 1999 it included all 10 countries in Southeast Asia. What began as a modest institution focusing on economic and security cooperation is now arguably one of the most successful expressions of regional cooperation in the developing world, one based on the principles of openness and gradualism – and a model of soft regionalism and soft inter-governmental cooperation.

The traditional ‘ASEAN way’ involved cooperation through informal understandings that impose no legally binding obligations, based on the principles of non-interference in national affairs and equal budget contribution. However, cooperation within ASEAN has started to become rules-based and more formally institutionalized.

Since 2003, ASEAN leaders established an ASEAN Community comprising of three pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community  to commence on January 1, 2016, the ASEAN Political-Security Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, both of which are expected to be fully operational by 2020.

In 2005, ASEAN leaders began crafting a charter which came into force in 2008, for the Region to strengthen its institutional pillars, bolster efforts to achieve the ASEAN Community, and give greater legal force to its international commitments.

ASEAN’s highest decision-making body was initially the foreign ministers’ meeting. In 1976 and 1977, ASEAN leaders’ first and second summits raised the organization’s international profile. Building on the 1971 Declaration on Southeast Asia as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, ASEAN agreed its first treaty, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. Together, these enabled ASEAN to formulate basic norms and principles to govern relations among states in the Region as well as with external powers.

ASEAN got a new lease of life when in 1992 leaders decided to create the ASEAN Free Trade Area.

ASEAN’s secretariat initially had limited powers, since national governments did not want to cede control over the institution’s development. Since the mid-1980s, however, it was allowed to strengthen and it now has many more powers and a broader pool of professional staff.

As its agenda has expanded, ASEAN has become a much more complex institution. ASEAN economic integration is mostly driven by individual countries’ own liberalization policies and supported by increasing foreign direct investments  from non-ASEAN economies. However, ASEAN is quite successful in the security and political areas, and it played an important role in helping to resolve the Cambodian conflict.

ASEAN’s 10 members remain diverse in terms of their declared political and ideological backgrounds, and while the very large income gap among them is, on average, slowly closing, some have much more advanced economies than others. The group has a very broad agenda, and initiatives are taken with the direct involvement of political leaders. Meetings of economic and other ministers, prepared by senior officials, direct its work. Under the new charter, these are now organized into three Councils of Ministers, each charged with realizing one of the three pillars of the ASEAN Community, and all reporting directly to the ASEAN Summit. (More detailed information can be obtained from ADB’s publication: Institutions for Regional Integration – towards an Asian Economic Community – contact [email protected]).