The Association of Southeast Asian Nations celebrated its 50th anniversary in a ceremony earlier this month in Manila. The regional group has contributed to furthering peace and stability and laying the foundation for prosperity in Southeast Asia. But as it moves forward, it faces various problems both within the region and in its relations with other countries. ASEAN members need to make further efforts to overcome these problems as a step toward firmly achieving its grand goals — peace and stability, economic integration, social-cultural cooperation, political cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, as its leaders mentioned in their anniversary declaration.
ASEAN was launched on Aug. 8, 1967, by the original five members — the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore — in the midst of the Cold War. In its early stage, there was a strong sense that it was an anti-communism league, but after the end of the Cold War countries with socialist systems like Vietnam and Laos joined. In 1999, its membership expanded to the current 10 with the participation of Cambodia.
ASEAN has pushed cooperation among its member countries by respecting their sovereignty with the principles of "nonintervention in the domestic affairs of another nation" and unanimity in making decisions. It has evolved into a multilateral alliance with a combined population of 640 million people and focuses on cooperation in the economic and security fields.