Chapter 7: Asian Regionalism

Regionalism – A manifestation or expression of a

common sense of cultural identity and purpose
combined with the creation and implementation of
institutions that express a particular identity and shaped
collective action within a geographical region.

1930’s – countries created preferential trade blocs in an

attempt to shelter their economies from the Great
Depression.

GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

WTO – World Trade Organization
TAC – Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (1976)

Asian Regional Organizations

ASEAN (August 8, 1967) – Association of Southeast
Asian Nations. Comprised of ten members namely
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and
Thailand later joined by Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam,
Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia. ASEAN covers a
land area of 4.4 million square roughly around 3% of the
total land area of Earth. Member countries have a
combined population of approximately 640 million
people, 8.8% of the world's population.

APEC (1989) – Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. 21

members including Australia; Brunei Darussalam;
Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong,
China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia;
Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The
Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese
Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; Viet Nam.
Bogor Goals, a commitment made by APEC Leaders in
1994.

EAS (2005) – East Asian Summit. The membership of

EAS consists of ten ASEAN member states (Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and
Vietnam), Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand,
Republic of Korea, Russian Federation and the USA.
EAS is an initiative of ASEAN and is based on the
premise of the centrality of ASEAN. The concept of
EAS was first promoted in 1991 by the then Malaysian
Prime Minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad.

APT (1997) – ASEAN Plus Three. ASEAN along with

People’s Republic of China, Japan, and The Republic of
South Korea.

ASEAN Plus 6 – ASEAN + 3 along with Australia,

New Zealand and India.

SEATO – South East Asia Treaty Organization