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1 [1] (November 1, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverfd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i nfor mng the leg s ative deba sinee 1914 Updated November 1, 2024 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 667 million and a combined annual gross domestic product (GDP) of around $3.2 trillion in 2022. 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 in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. Collectively, ASEAN ranks 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. (Timor-Leste, the region's newest nation, has observer status.) Members rotate as chair: Malaysia is ASEAN's chair for 2025 and the Philippines is to assume the chair in 2026. ASEAN engages in a range of diplomatic, economic, and security discussions through hundreds of annual meetings and through a secretariat 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. ASEAN is a diverse and informal organization. Two of its core operating principles are consensual decision-making 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'6tat, which has led to a political and humanitarian crisis in one of the group's members. ASEAN and Asian Re ona Arch tecture 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, the People's Republic of China (PRC or China), India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM+), established in 2010, regularly brings senior defense officials from EAS members together and hosts military exchanges. Over the past decade, cooperation through non-ASEAN regional groupings such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security grouping, and other mini-lateral groupings involving regional nations-including some ASEAN members-has deepened. Some Southeast Asian observers have expressed concern that such cooperation weakens ASEAN's driving role in regional diplomacy and cooperation. Association Source: Graphic created by CRS. U.S.-ASEAN R atons The United States has longstanding 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 other 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. The relationship was elevated in 2015 to a U.S.- ASEAN Strategic Partnership and in 2022 to a U.S.- ASEAN Comprehensive 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

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