ASEAN at a Glance: Must-Know Facts and Figures

ASEAN Organization Breakdown: A Closer Look at Its Functions

ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. ASEAN is a regional intergovernmental organization that includes the ten countries in Southeast Asia and encourages intergovernmental cooperation. It has a population of over 600 million and covers an area of 4.5 million km2. The headquarters of ASEAN are located in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was founded on August 8, 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand, and the founder of ASEAN is Abdul Razak Hussein. Adam Malik, Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, Narciso Ramos, and Thanat khoman.

The 13 ASEAN Countries

• Brunei Darussalam, The Kingdom of Cambodia, and The Republic of Indonesia

• The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, and The Union of Myanmar

• The Republic of the Philippines, The Republic of Singapore, and The Kingdom of Thailand

• The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

The big countries in ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, and all ASEAN countries are collectively the United States fourth largest trading partner and together represent a market with a GDP of more than $2.9 trillion and a population of 647 million people.

Also Read: WTO Fundamentals: Facts You Need to Know

Facts about the ASEAN organization

• The South China Sea dispute has not been resolved for many decades, and there are no signs yet of resolution.

• The Mekong River dispute between Laos and Cambodia will create tension and lead to violence.

• The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has gone extreme, and ASEAN is not taking any action.

• The benefits of economic growth are not equally distributed to the ASEAN countries; there is an inequality issue between the rich and poor in these organizations.

• The major issue is corruption in the ASEAN organization, and the rapid economic growth of the ASEAN organization leads to water pollution, air pollution, and environmental degradation.