As the 21st century dawns, ASEAN is embracing a new vision of itself as "a concert of Southeast Asian nations, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bonded together in partnership in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies."
      ASEAN's success is all the more remarkable because it began at a time of poverty and conflict, and because as recently as two years ago, the region was deep in financial crisis. The crisis, which
The financial crisis tested the cohesion of ASEAN countries and found them a dynamic community of nations
began in July 1997, threatened to reverse the region's economic and social gains of two decades. That the ASEAN economies have bounced back after two years of crisis vividly shows their fundamental strength and resilience.
      Today the ASEAN region stretches across three time zones and incorporates a key part of Asia's continental landmass and several archipelagos. Economically, it belongs to the developing world, but some of its member countries have joined the world's top 20 most competitive economies. Its population of about 500 million constitutes a huge, increasingly middle-class market, half the size of China's. One of every ten persons in the world today is a Southeast Asian. Besides its economic importance and the natural resources its marine territories are believed to hold, Southeast Asia is also of global strategic importance. It is the bridge between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It straddles some of the busiest sea-lanes in the world. The oil tankers and freighters that pass daily through these sea-lanes buttress Japan's status as an industrial power.

ASEAN Milestones

The history of ASEAN may be told as a series of important events or milestones, which reflect the steady growth of the association, the expansion of its agenda, and the decisions it has taken that have veritably changed the history of Southeast Asia. From a regional grouping that initially had to define itself by what it was not - a regional association that was not a military alliance - ASEAN had become at the end of the 20th century a dynamic community of nations.
      ASEAN's milestones are many, but a number of them stand out in its 33-year history:
      ° 8 August 1967: ASEAN is founded. The founding document, the ASEAN Declaration, also known as the Bangkok Declaration

  of 1967, is signed by the Foreign Ministers of the five founding countries.
      ° 27 November 1971: The ASEAN Foreign Ministers issue the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality Declaration in Kuala Lumpur.
      ° 24 February 1976: The First ASEAN Summit takes place in Bali, Indonesia. During this Summit, the ASEAN leaders sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. They also sign a programme of action on ASEAN cooperation called the Declaration on ASEAN Concord. They establish an ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.
      ° 4 August 1977: The Second ASEAN Summit convenes in Kuala Lumpur; commemorating the tenth anniversary of ASEAN's founding. For the first time, the ASEAN leaders as a group meet the heads of government of Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
      ° 7 January 1984: Brunei Darussalam is formally admitted.
      ° 15 December 1987: The Third ASEAN Summit meets in Manila. The ASEAN leaders sign the Manila Declaration of 1987, which speeds up ASEAN cooperation in the political, economic, social and human development fields.
      ° 23 October 1991: The International Conference on Cambodia in Paris, chaired by France and Indonesia as interlocutor of ASEAN, reaches a political settlement that paves the way for elections under the supervision of the United Nations, the rebirth of the Kingdom of Cambodia and its eventual membership in ASEAN in 1999.
      ° 28 January 1992: The Fourth ASEAN Summit is held in Singapore. The ASEAN leaders establish an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) through a schedule of accelerated tariff reductions -- the Common Effective Preferential Tariff scheme. They decide that ASEAN should move to a higher plane of economic and political cooperation.
      ° 22 July 1992: The ASEAN Foreign Ministers issue the ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea. The Declaration calls on the disputants over territories in the South China Sea to exercise self-restraint and resort to peaceful means to resolve their differences.
      ° 25 July 1994: The ASEAN Regional Forum holds its inaugural meeting in Bangkok.
      ° 28 July 1995: Viet Nam is admitted as a member of ASEAN.
      ° 15 December 1995: The Fifth ASEAN Summit takes place in Bangkok. The heads of government of all ten Southeast Asian nations sign the Treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. The ASEAN leaders decide to raise their cooperation on human and social development, called Functional Cooperation, to the same level as their Economic and Political Cooperation.

 
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