2 - ASEAN: Evolution of Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia

Summary

This chapter explores and analyses the evolution of regional cooperation or integration and the establishment of ASEAN. Political and economic cooperation among ASEAN members as well as ASEAN's cooperation with other regional groupings and third countries will also be discussed.

EVOLUTION OF REGIONAL COOPERATION AND THE FORMATION OF ASEAN

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional cooperative organization established by the Bangkok Declaration on 8 August 1967 (Appendix I). The founding members of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Actually, attempts for regional cooperation among the Southeast Asian countries started much earlier. According to Lyon (1992, pp. 277–80), regional cooperation among ASEAN countries went through three tumultuous stages since 1945.

The first phase, which lasted from the end of World War II till the mid-1950s, was mainly dominated by the (anti-communist) ideology prevailing in both the United States and Britain on the nature and type of regional association for Southeast Asia (ASEAN Secretariat 1997). During this period, there were three groups of countries in the region. One group included Malaya, the Borneo territories, and Singapore (which belonged to the British), and Laos, Cambodia and part of Vietnam, which were under French influence. Meanwhile, Burma and Indonesia, which belonged to the second group, were founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. The third group comprising Thailand and the Philippines leaned toward the United States.

Thailand and the Philippines were the only Southeast Asian signatories of the Manila Treaty when the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was established in 1954 under the influence of the United States. The other participating countries of SEATO were Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan. The main objective of the Manila Treaty was to form an anti-communist bloc in Southeast Asia and to call for collective action in the event of an armed attack on any Southeast Asian country. At the same time, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), the predecessor of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN/ESCAP), and the so-called Colombo Plan, were formed in 1947 and 1950 respectively, with the aims of providing technical assistance and economic cooperation. Both these organizations depended largely upon the postwar non-communist superpowers, United States and Britain.