ASEAN
- Title
- ASEAN Charter
In December 2008, ASEAN charter was launched through a meeting of the 10 nations in Jakarta.
However, due to the financial crisis of 2007-8, the charter came to force in December 2008 (ASEAN, n.d.).
The ASEAN charter is a constitutional document that highlights the institutional framework.
It defines the fundamental principles and membership requirements.
The charter covers three aspects: AEC, political-security community, and socio-cultural community.
- ASEAN Charter Purpose
The ASEAN charter was created for the following reasons:
To emphasize the change of the legal framework.
To refine the political commitments at the top level.
Incorporating two DSGs in the organizational structure, and will be openly-recruited.
To add extra roles to the Secretary-General and Foreign Ministers of ASEAN.
To declare an increase in meetings.
- ASEAN Headquarter
The present-day headquarters of ASEAN is ASEAN Secretariat based at 70A JalanSisingamangaraja, Jakarta.
It was built and officiated by President Soeharto in 1981 (ASEAN, n.d.).
Formerly, ASEAN Secretariat was at the Department of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia.
The key function of the secretariat is to enhance the coordination of ASEAN bodies.
Also, to effectively engineer ASEAN’s activities and projects.
- ASEAN Background
ASEAN was established in August 1967 after the passing of the ASEAN Declaration.
Foreignministers from five nations signed the declaration; Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
The declaration showed ASEAN’s aim, which was linked to improving aspects of the economy, culture, and society.
ASEAN was an antecedent of ASA (Associationof South East) formed in July 1961.
ASA consisted of the Philippines, Thailand, and the Federation of Malaya.
- ASEAN Background (part II)
The establishment of ASEAN was attributed to the unanimous fear of socialism.
The nations wanted a community that promoted production, distribution, and exchange of products and services.
The cohesion between the member states was reinforced in the mid-1970s following the cessation of the Vietnam war.
The dramatic growth of the ASEAN states’ economy fostered cohesion (Moon, 2019).
Nonetheless, the first summit meeting was held in 1976 in Bali, Indonesia.
- Membership
ASEAN is currently made up of 10 nations (NTI, 2019).
Philippines and Thailand are the oldest nations as they formed the precedent of ASEAN.
Indonesia, signore, and Malaysia came together with the Philippines and Thailand in 1967 and formed ASEAN.
Brunei became the sixth member on Jan 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995.
The eighth and ninth states to join were Laos and Myanmar in 1997 (Moon, 2019).
The last member to enter the Bloc was Cambodia in 1999.
- Organization Structure
The top-most leader of the ASEAN is the chair.
The chairman is changed annually as enshrined by the charter through a continuous rotation of all the member states (ASEAN, n.d.).
The role ofthisindividual is to chair ASEAN Summit and related ones.
Also, chairing the ASEAN’s hierarchies starting with the top-level, which is the coordinating council;
Followed by community councils, ministerial bodies, and committee of representatives.
- Organization Structure (part II)
The structure of ASEAN is also horizontally divided into three blueprints; AEC, APSC, and ASCC.
AEC (ASEAN EconomicCommunity) Blueprint deals with economic integration initiatives.
APSC (ASEAN Political-Security Community) Blueprint focuses on the creation of a political-security environment.
ASCC (ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community) Blueprint aims to make the community socially responsible and people-centered.
- Source of Funding
The shared pool of funds of ASEAN is the ASEAN Development Fund (ADF). Formerly known as ASEAN Fund (ASEAN, 2007).
The funding source for ADF is from the member states.
Any state that has joined or will be joining is required to contribute one million dollars.
The member states also make voluntary contributions to the ADF.
In addition, public andprivate sources make donations (pdf1).
- Source of Funding (part II)
The funds are reserved for several purposes.
They are held in the ASEAN Secretariat’s Trust and are subject to rules and conditions of the standard trust funds.
The use of the funds is discussed biannually to ensure the goals of the three pillars is realized.
The funds are used in regional cooperation programs, large scale projects, small scale and short-term projects (ASEAN, 2007).
- Achievements
Food
The bloc has had remarkable feats in food security, handling, and safety.
The ASEAN Emergency Rice Reserve presently has 87,000 tons in reserve.
Food handling has been boosted by the ASEAN General guidelines on the Preparation and Handling of Halal Food (ASEAN A, n.d).
Forestry
Increasing forest productionis one of the goals of ASEAN.
It has promoted the sustainable use of natural resources through using various programs like ASEAN German Regional Forest Program.
- Achievements (part II)
Agriculture
ASEAN creates awareness concerning food safety.
It has done this by harmonizing the maximum residual levels (MRL).
Livestock rearing in the ASEAN states is challenging due to the prevalence of infectious diseases.
ASEAN has embarked on standardizing vaccines and making them accessible to the rural areas (ASEAN A, n.d).
- Meeting Schedule
ASEAN has several meetings that are attended by diverse bodies.
The summit meeting happens biannually since the implementation of the charter.
It fosters the assemblage of the head of states of the member nations.
The foreign ministers also conduct annual conferences.
Ambassadors of the host country partake in these conferences (Moon, 2009).
- Meeting Schedule (part II)
In addition, ASEAN holds other meetings for foreigncountries.
There is ASEAN Plus Six. The meeting involves the heads of the state for each country of the bloc;
And leaders from Japan, the Republic of Korea, and China.
ASEAN Plus Three incorporates leaders from India, Australia, and New Zealand.
Finally, the Eat Asia Summit adds Russia and USA’s leaders in the Plus Six meeting (Moon, 2019).
- Impact on International Trade
The bloc has brought remarkable transformations in the economy.
In 2015, a single market was created by the AEC branch.
Three years later, eight countries in the bloc topped in the world’s outperforming economies (ASEAN A, n.d.).
In addition, the branch led to the establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).
AFTA comprises of Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) and visa-free travel.
- Impact on International Trade (part II)
AFTA led the economy growth of the member states in the start of the century by a margin as high as 7%.
The growth was high as compared to the one observed in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Visa-free travel also had the same trend.
Intra-ASEAN travel boomed in 2010 as 47% of the tourist in the ASEAN member countries came from the ASEAN bloc (ASEAN A, n.d.).
- Foreign relation
ASEAN foreign relations cover a significant number of countries in the globe
UAE is not an exemption. However, its relationship with this country is through the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The relationship between these two blocs initiated in 1990.
Successive meetings by their leaders led to the formation of ASEAN-GCC in June 2009.
Later on, a Two Year Action Plan that took part in 2010-12 was created to intensify the cooperation (pdf).
- Foreign relation (part II)
ASEAN relations has made it to create significant trading partners.
It trades largely with four nations; China, Japan, the U.S., and the European Union.
To a lesser extent, its relations have made it trade with countries like Australia, Canada, Chile, and India
.
International meetings have facilitated these relations.
Such as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Plus Six and the ASEAN Plus Three.
- Significant Contributory Factors
Multiple factors have led to the growth of the block, whereas others have offered challenges.
However, one element (conflict) has shown to cause a positive andnegative impact.
Membership doubled at the end of the 20th century due to wars ending (Albert, 2009).
This includes Cambodia’s Civil war and the Cold War.
In addition, the U.S and Vietnam normalization brought peace.
- Significant Contributory Factors (part II)
Nonetheless, the deterioration of security has negatively affected ASEAN.
The prevalent dispute being the one over the South China Sea.
The involved nations fighting against China are Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines (ref2).
Other insecurities include natural disasters, narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and many others.
- References
NTI. (2019, March 26). Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Nuclear Threat Initiative | NTI. https://www.nti.org/learn/treaties-and-regimes/association-southeast-asian-nations-asean/
Albert, E., &Maizland, L. (2009, February 25). What is ASEAN? Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-asean
Moon, C. (2019). ASEAN. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/ASEAN
ASEAN. (n.d.). About ASEAN. ASEAN | ONE VISION ONE IDENTITY ONE COMMUNITY. https://asean.org/asean/about-asean/
ASEAN. A. (n.d.). Major achievements. ASEAN | ONE VISION ONE IDENTITY ONE COMMUNITY. https://asean.org/?static_post=major-achievements
ASEAN. (2007). AGREEMENT FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ASEAN DEVELOPMENT FUND. https://agreement.asean.org/media/download/20140422144316.pdf