Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Established in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to promote regional peace and stability through the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter. The ASEAN Charter, which entered into force on 15 December 2008, provides a legal and institutional framework to support the realisation of ASEAN’s objectives, including regional integration.
ASEAN comprises ten countries: Burma, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEAN has ten Dialogue Partners: Australia, Canada, China, EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russia and the United States. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also has dialogue status. Australia became ASEAN's first Dialogue Partner in 1974.
Statistics
ASEAN Meetings
ASEAN holds annual Head of State/Government-level Summits.
ASEAN holds regular ministerial and senior officials’ meetings across a number of portfolios throughout the year. The main meetings involving the foreign ministers of ASEAN and its dialogue partners are the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC), normally held in July, followed by the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The focal point of the year for economic ministers is the ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meetings (AEM), normally held in August. The AEM is attended by Economic Ministers of ASEAN and a number of dialogue partners.
ASEAN documents, statements and meeting schedules can be viewed at www.aseansec.org
ASEAN Structure
The Chair of ASEAN is rotated among the ASEAN countries on an annual basis, and acts as host of the Summit and key ministerial meetings. The Chair of ASEAN for 2010 is Vietnam, to be followed by Brunei in 2011.
The ASEAN Secretariat, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, coordinates, initiates and implements ASEAN activities. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General of ASEAN, who is appointed for a five-year term and accorded ministerial status. Dr Surin Pitsuwan, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, assumed the post of Secretary-General of ASEAN on 7 January 2008.
ASEAN has several specialised bodies to implement inter-governmental cooperation in various fields, such as the ASEAN Agricultural Development Planning Centre and the ASEAN Centre for Energy. In addition, ASEAN promotes dialogue and consultations with professional and business organisations, such as the ASEAN-Chambers of Commerce and Industry and ASEAN Business Forum. A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have formal affiliations with ASEAN.
Australia's Relationship with ASEAN
As its first Dialogue Partner, Australia has a longstanding and deep relationship with ASEAN, covering cooperation in a range of areas including security, culture, trade, education and development. Along with Australia’s participation in annual ASEAN meetings with Dialogue Partners, the ASEAN-Australia Forum is held every 18 months to two years, most recently in May 2008 in Canberra.
In 2007, Australia and ASEAN signed the Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Partnership. The Plan of Action to implement the Comprehensive Partnership provides a framework for future engagement, covering political and security, economic, socio-cultural and development cooperation.
Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN Ministers signed the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement on 27 February 2009. ASEAN collectively is Australia’s largest trading partner. In 2008-09, two-way trade in goods and services with ASEAN totalled $83 billion and accounted for 14.7 per cent of Australia’s total trade. When implemented, the free trade agreement will further consolidate Australia's economic integration with the region and complement our existing bilateral agreements with Singapore and Thailand.
Education services are Australia’s largest services export to ASEAN. Australia is a leading provider of on-shore and off-shore education services to the region, with over 70,000 students from ASEAN countries studying at Australian educational institutions in 2007. Academic and institutional links between Australia and ASEAN continue to strengthen with many Australian universities setting up offshore campuses. Our people-to-people links are also strong, with high-levels of tourism and travel between Australia and ASEAN countries and dynamic cultural relations.
Australia has worked in partnership with ASEAN for over 30 years to build economic cooperation and prosperity in the region including through the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Program. Further information on Australia’s development assistance to the region can be found at AusAID.
Australia is also a co-sponsor of the Regional Interfaith Dialogue, together with Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand. In addition to the co-sponsoring countries, the eight remaining ASEAN countries also participate in the Dialogue, as well as East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The Dialogue has been held on five occasions, most recently in Perth in October 2009. The theme of the Perth Dialogue was "Future Faith Leaders: Regional Challenges and Co-operation". The Perth Dialogue followed on from a positive history of regional Dialogues: the Yogyakarta Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation (December 2004), the Cebu Dialogue on Regional Cooperation for Peace, Development and Human Dignity (March 2006), the Waitangi Dialogue on Building Bridges (May 2007) and the Phnom Penh Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace and Harmony (April 2008).
The Declarations from each of the five Dialogues are available here:
- Yogyakarta Declaration
- Cebu Declaration
- Waitangi Declaration
- Phnom Penh Declaration
- Perth Declaration.
ASEAN-Australia documents
- ASEAN Chairman's Statement on the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) +1 Sessions, 22 July 2009, Phuket, Thailand
- ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement
- Australia signs historic regional Free Trade Agreement - Media Release, Minister for Trade Simon Crean, 27 February 2009
- Joint Media Statement on the Thirteenth AEM-CER Consultations, 28 August 2008
- Chairman’s Statement for the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences, 23 July 2008
- Joint Declaration on the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Partnership
- Plan of Action, 1 August 2007
- ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
- Joint Declaration of the Leaders of the ASEAN - Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit