Editing ASEAN (section)

===Founding===
{{main|ASEAN Declaration|ASEAN Charter}}
[[File:ST 20170326 STKISHOREBOOKOA4Q 3027316-2-640x480.jpg|left|thumb|Signing of the [[ASEAN Declaration]] by five Foreign Ministers in Bangkok on 8 August 1967 ]]
The predecessor of ASEAN was the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), formed on 31 July 1961 and consisting of [[Thailand]], the [[Philippines]], and [[Federation of Malaya|Malaya]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tarling |first1=Nicholas |title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2, Part 2, From World War II to the Present |year=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-66372-4 |page=287 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0trzUvic-8C&pg=PA287 |access-date=7 January 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ooi |first1=Keat Gin |title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor |year=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-770-2 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA186 |access-date=7 January 2021}}</ref> ASEAN itself was created on 8 August 1967, when the [[foreign minister]]s of five countries—[[Indonesia]], [[Malaysia]], the [[Philippines]], [[Singapore]], and [[Thailand]]—signed the [[ASEAN Declaration]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liow |first1=Joseph |last2=Leifer |first2=Michael |title=Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia |date=20 November 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-62233-8 |pages=82–85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5KLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA82 |access-date=7 January 2021}}</ref> According to the Declaration, ASEAN aims to accelerate economic, social, and cultural development in the region, as well as promoting regional peace, to collaborate on matters of shared interest, and to promote [[Southeast Asian studies]] and maintain close cooperation with existing international organizations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asean.org/news/item/the-asean-declaration-bangkok-declaration|title=The Asean Declaration (Bangkok Declaration) Bangkok, 8 August 1967|publisher=ASEAN|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211121705/http://www.asean.org/news/item/the-asean-declaration-bangkok-declaration|archive-date=11 February 2015|access-date=17 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asean.org/asean/about-asean/overview|title=Overview|website=asean.org|publisher=ASEAN|access-date=7 February 2015|archive-date=17 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217005044/http://www.asean.org/asean/about-asean/overview|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:ASEAN's Big Five.jpg|left|thumb|ASEAN's Big Five — (L to R) Philippine Foreign Secretary [[Narciso Ramos]], Indonesian Foreign Minister [[Adam Malik]], Thai Foreign Minister [[Thanat Khoman]], Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister [[Abdul Razak Hussein|Tun Abdul Razak]], and Singaporean Foreign Minister [[S. Rajaratnam]].]]
The creation of ASEAN was initially motivated by [[anti-communism|the desire to contain communism]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Is ASEAN? |url=https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-asean |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=Council on Foreign Relations}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Overview of ASEAN |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=jfadt/asean/aseanch1.pdf}}</ref> which had taken a foothold in mainland Asia after [[World War II]], with the formation of communist governments in [[North Korea]], [[China]], and [[North Vietnam|Vietnam]], accompanied by the so-called communist "emergency" in [[British Malaya]], and unrest in the recently decolonized [[Philippines]].

These events also encouraged the earlier formation of the [[South East Asia Treaty Organization]] (SEATO), led by the [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], and [[Australia]], with several Southeast Asian partners in 1954 as an extension of "containment" policy, seeking to create an Eastern version of [[NATO]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Asia-Pacific Profile |author1=Bernard Eccleston |author2=Michael Dawson |author3=Deborah J. McNamara |year=1998 |publisher=Routledge (UK) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l07ak-yd6DAC&q=%22Bangkok+Declaration%22+ASEAN&pg=RA1-PA311 |isbn=978-0-415-17279-0 |access-date=3 June 2020 |archive-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930053135/https://books.google.com/books?id=l07ak-yd6DAC&pg=RA1-PA311&lpg=RA1-PA311&dq=%22Bangkok+Declaration%22+ASEAN |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the local member states of ASEAN group achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in the balance of power after the [[Fall of Saigon]] and the end of the [[Vietnam War]] in April 1975 and the decline of SEATO.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beeson |first=Mark |title=Institutions of the Asia–Pacific: ASEAN, APEC, and beyond |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-46504-5 |series=Global institutions series |location=London |pages=65|quote=Despite the previously discussed potential limitations of the ASEAN way and its preference for voluntarism and consensus, it was felt that this form of multilateralism had more chance of success than some of its institutional predecessors like SEATO, which was unable to demonstrate "either a viable political purpose or a military function."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The ASEAN: Thirty years and beyond |date=1997 |isbn=978-971-15-0360-4 |editor-last=Aranal-Sereno |editor-first=Maria Lourdes |location=Quezon City |pages=271, 460 |quote=Regional cooperation flourished when the smaller countries took the leadership in developing such organizations as ASEAN ... As the US forces moved on to strategic weakness and disengagement, heightened insecurity caught up with Southeast Asian countries and, ironically, gave ASEAN a sense of being. |editor-last2=Santiago |editor-first2=Joseph Sedfrey}}</ref>

ASEAN's first summit meeting, held in [[Bali]], [[Indonesia]], in 1976, resulted in an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a [[Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia|Treaty of Amity and Cooperation]], and a Declaration of Concord. The end of the [[Cold War]] allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s, ASEAN emerged as a leading voice on [[regional trade]] and security issues.<ref>Moon, C. (2014). ASEAN. Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>

On 15 December 1995, the [[Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty]] was signed to turn Southeast Asia into a [[nuclear-weapon-free zone]]. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states had ratified it. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001 after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region.<ref name="NWFZ">[http://disarmament.un.org/TreatyStatus.nsf/Bangkok%20Treaty%20(in%20alphabetical%20order)?OpenView Bangkok Treaty (in alphabetical order) At UNODA] United Nations. Retrieved 4 September 2008. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728143121/http://disarmament.un.org/TreatyStatus.nsf/Bangkok%20Treaty%20%28in%20alphabetical%20order%29?OpenView|date=28 July 2011}}</ref>