Bangkok Declaration
Beset by internal conflicts and divided by ideology, history, religion, and culture, various countries in Southeast Asia came to recognize the need for some sort of cooperative grouping to deal with their unstable environment. Against the backdrop of the Cold War and the conflicts in Laos and Vietnam, on 8 August 1967 Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand established the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Bangkok Declaration was issued to assert that ASEAN was established first and foremost for the purpose of economic, social, and cultural collaboration and not as a security alliance. To contour the future direction of the region and to promote mutual peace, prosperity, and stability, the Declaration proposed economic partnerships, social relations, and cultural linkages among member countries as a means of accelerating and sustaining peace. Over the years, the Declaration has served as a reference point in dealing with internal squabbles among member countries. The eventual inclusion of all the Southeast Asian countries—Brunei Darussalam in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999—is a testimony to the success of the fundamental principles of the Bangkok Declaration.
Further Reading
Ganesan, Narayanan. (1999) Bilateral Tensions in Post–Cold War ASEAN. Singapore: Regional Strategic and Political Studies Programme, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Gill, Ranjit. (1997) ASEAN towards the 21st Century: A Thirty-Year Review of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. London: ASEAN Academic Press.
Hourn, Kao Kim, and Jeffrey A. Kaplan, eds. (2000) Asean's Non-Interference Policy: Principles under Pressure? London: ASEAN Academic Press.
Muhammad Ghazali Shafie, and Tan Sri. (2000) Malaysia, ASEAN, and the New World Order. Bangi, Malaysia: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Severino, Rodolfo. (1999) ASEAN Rises to the Challenge. Jakarta, Indonesia: ASEAN Secretariat.
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