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August 8, 1967 CE / South & Southeast Asia

The Founding of ASEAN and Regional Cooperation in Southeast Asia

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand signed a declaration in Bangkok establishing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to promote regional cooperation.

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Modern World
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South & Southeast Asia
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The ASEAN Declaration of 1967
Historical recordA scanned page of the declaration signed in Bangkok on 8 August 1967. The document records the establishment of ASEAN; it is not a photograph of the ministers’ signing ceremony.Governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain Image credit & source

The story

On August 8, 1967, representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand signed the ASEAN Declaration in Bangkok, establishing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The declaration called for economic, social, and cultural cooperation and regional peace and stability. There were only five founding members, and other Southeast Asian countries joined later; today's membership should not be projected back onto 1967. ASEAN was also not an institutional continuation of the Bandung Conference, which differed in scope and organizational form. Regional cooperation developed gradually amid the Cold War and tensions between neighboring countries.

Elsewhere in the world

From the Asian-African Bandung Conference in 1955 to a Southeast Asian regional organization in 1967, countries tried different scopes and institutional arrangements to address cooperation and sovereignty.

Dates and precision

August 8, 1967 CE Documented date

Positioned by the documented year, month or day; missing months and days are not inferred.

Representative map location

Representative coordinates · 13.753°, 100.493°

Coordinates locate a representative point for the story. They do not mean the event happened only here and do not represent historical borders.

Bibliography

  • ASEAN Secretariat | History of ASEAN's Founding
  • ASEAN Secretariat | Original Text of the 1967 ASEAN Declaration

Sources are listed as bibliography titles, without external links. A reference does not mean every sentence or interpretation has been independently verified.

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