Bangkok Declaration

ASEAN Declaration or Bangkok Declaration is the founding document of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was signed in Bangkok on August 8 1967 by the five ASEAN founding members - Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand as a display of solidarity against Communist expansion in Vietnam and communist insurgency within their own borders. It states the basic principles of ASEAN such as cooperation, amity and non-interference. [cite book|title=The Asia-Pacific Profile |author= Bernard Eccleston, Michael Dawson, Deborah J. McNamara|year= 1998|publisher=Routledge (UK)|url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415172799&id=l07ak-yd6DAC&pg=RA1-PA311&lpg=RA1-PA311&ots=XgqmmGV3CC&dq=%22Bangkok+Declaration%22+ASEAN&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&sig=u2ddDhzn-yVhEn5Fwu3d8iih0OA|id=ISBN 0415172799]

urrounding Issues

Communism

Prior to the declaration, Southeast Asia struggled to contain communist influence. At the time, the Philippine government struggled to give amnesty to former Hukbalahap militants, which staged an armed conflict in Luzon during the 1950s that almost led to the collapse of the central government. Indonesia, on the other hand suffered a coup led by Suharto, which was ironically caused by the pretext of stopping a communist coup. While Malaya was busy fighting communists during the Malayan Emergency.

Communism also led to the led to the idea of merging the Federation of Malaya, Sarawak, Singapore and North Borneo into one entity, which had the intention of eliminating the possibility of Singapore falling into communism.

Tensions between neighbors

Another related matter was the formation of Malaysia. In 1961, Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman announced a proposal to create a new federation called Malaysia. This was opposed by Indonesia and the Philippines because Indonesia believed the new formation was a form a neo-colonialism while the Philippines claims North Borneo as part of its territory.

To diffuse tension, a nonpolitical confederation called Maphilindo was formed. This, however, was not successful due to the perception that Maphilindo was formed to delay or prevent the formation of Malaysia.

Despite opposition, Malaysia was formed in 1963. This led to theIndonesia-Malaysia confrontation while the Philippines withrew diplomatic ties, causing relations to remain sour until the formation of ASEAN.

It is believed that the formation of ASEAN has prevented such hostilities between Southeast Asian states.

See also

* ASEAN Charter
* Domino Theory

References

External links

* [http://www.asean.org/1212.htm Bangkok Declaration] at ASEAN Secretariat site