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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Overview
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is
Southeast Asia's primary multilateral organization, a 10-
member grouping of nations with a combined population of
660 million and a combined annual gross domestic product
(GDP) of around $3.1 trillion in 2021. Established in 1967,
it has grown into one of the world's largest regional fora,
representing a strategically important region straddling
some of the world's busiest sea lanes, including the Straits
of Malacca and the South China Sea. Taken collectively,
ASEAN would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy
and the United States' fourth-largest export market.
ASEAN's members are Brunei, Burma (Myanmar),
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Members rotate as
chair: Cambodia is ASEAN's chair for 2022 and Indonesia
is to assume the chair in 2023. ASEAN engages in a wide
range of diplomatic, economic and security discussions
through hundreds of annual meetings and through a
secretariat based in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2008, the United
States became the first non-ASEAN nation to appoint a
representative to ASEAN, and in 2011 it opened a U.S.
mission to ASEAN in Jakarta with a resident ambassador.
Several other nations have followed suit. President Biden
plans a formal meeting with ASEAN's leaders March 28-29
in Washington, DC.
ASEAN is a diverse and informal organization. Two of its
core operating principles are consensual decisionmaking
and noninterference in the internal affairs of its members.
Some observers argue that this style constrains ASEAN
from acting strongly and cohesively on important issues.
Others argue that these principles-dubbed the ASEAN
Way-promote regional stability and ensure that the
group's members continue to discuss issues where their
interests sometimes diverge. The principle has been tested
as ASEAN seeks to address the crisis that has followed the
Burmese military's 2021 coup d'etat.
ASEA N and Asian RegionaI Arch itecture
Asia has no dominant EU-style multilateral body, and many
observers see the region's economic and security
institutions as underdeveloped. ASEAN convenes and
administratively supports a number of regional fora that
include other governments (known as dialogue partners)'
including the United States. ASEAN Member governments
deeply value what they call ASEAN Centrality in the
evolving regional architecture.
The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), first convened in
1994 with 26 Asian and Pacific states plus the EU, was
formed to facilitate dialogue on political and security
matters. The East Asia Summit (EAS), created in 2005, is
an evolving leaders-level forum with a varied agenda, in
which the United States gained membership in 2010. The
EAS includes all 10 ASEAN members, plus Australia,
China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea,
and the United States. The ASEAN Defense Ministers
Meeting-Plus (ADMM+), established in 2010, brings
senior defense officials from EAS members together
regularly and hosts multilateral military exchanges.
In recent years, as cooperation through non-ASEAN
regional groupings such as the Quadrilateral Security
Dialogue and the Australia-UK-U.S. (AUKUS) security
grouping has deepened, some Southeast Asian observers
have expressed concern about ASEAN's place in U.S.
strategy. The Biden Administration casts its March 2022
summit with ASEAN leaders as a tangible demonstration of
U.S. commitment to the organization.
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The United States has long had strong bilateral relations
with individual Southeast Asian nations, including treaty
alliances with the Philippines and Thailand and a close
security partnership with Singapore. Many U.S.
policymakers see engagement with ASEAN as
complementing bilateral relationships and strengthening the
region's collective diplomatic weight as oter regional
players gain in economic and military power. The United
States initially supported ASEAN as a means to promote
regional dialogue and as a bulwark against Communism,
becoming an ASEAN Dialogue Partner in 1977. In 2009,
the United States acceded to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity
and Cooperation and committed to an annual U.S.-ASEAN
Meeting. In 2012, the United States and ASEAN agreed to
raise the level of the U.S.-ASEAN meeting to a Leaders
Meeting, and in November 2015 announced a U.S.-ASEAN
Strategic Partnership.
Successive U.S. Administrations have identified deep U.S.
interests in Southeast Asia, including fostering democracy
and human rights, encouraging liberal trade and investment
regimes, addressing maritime security and tensions in the](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govegyr0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)