Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

APEC is an organization that aims to promote free trade and economic cooperation throughout the Asia Pacific region. It was created in 1989 because of the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the establishment of regional economic blocs such as the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

APEC intends to improve living standards and education levels through sustainable economic growth and to promote a sense of community and an appreciation of common values among Asia-Pacific countries. APEC’s membership includes 21 states, called “member economies.”

Of these, 12 are founding members—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States— while Chile, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, and Vietnam joined at a later phase. APEC has no treaty obligations of its participants.


Decisions made within APEC are reached by consensus, and commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis. APEC’s membership accounts for approximately 40 percent of the world’s population, approximately 56 percent of world GDP, and about 48 percent of world trade.

The first APEC Leaders’ Meeting occurred in 1993 and was organized by Bill Clinton in Blake Island, Washington. At its 1994 summit meeting in Bogor, Indonesia, APEC set an ambitious schedule to achieve free trade and raise the level of investments throughout the Asia-Pacific region by 2010 for members with developed economies and by 2020 for members with developing ones.

The Osaka Action Agenda was adopted a year later and was designed to implement APEC’s goals of liberalizing trade and investment, facilitating business activities, and promoting economic and technical cooperation. The procedure that all APEC’s decisions had to be taken by consensus and preferably passed unanimously limited the effectiveness of APEC.

In addition, although decisions can be taken in the absence of unanimity, they are not legally binding on member governments. In 1997 at the annual summit in Vancouver, Canada, police forces violently clashed with demonstrators objecting to the presence of Indonesian president Suharto.

APEC is organized into numerous committees, special task commissions, working groups, and a business advisory council. The committees meet twice per year. The working groups are led by experts and consider specific issues, including energy, tourism, fishing, transportation, and telecommunications.

Every year one of the member economies hosts an economic leaders’ meeting, selected ministerial meetings, senior officials meetings, the APEC Business Advisory Council and the APEC Study Centres Consortium, and also fills the executive director position at the APEC secretariat.

The deputy executive director changes every year, as the position is given to a senior diplomat of the country who will be the APEC chair the following year. The APEC secretariat, established in 1993 and based in Singapore, provides coordination as well as technical and advisory support for all the organization’s initiatives.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

ASEAN logo

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)— with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand as original members—was established on August 8, 1967. As outlined in the Bangkok declaration of ASEAN, it was formed to strive for the peace and prosperity of the region.

An important regional organization, ASEAN, whose member countries have a population of more than 500 million, strove for regional cooperation to benefit its member countries. It encompassed the rest of the countries of Southeast Asia over time with the admission of Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and Cambodia (1999). The Meeting of the ASEAN Heads of State and Government is the top decision-making body of the ASEAN.

Every year, ASEAN Summit and ASEAN Ministerial meetings are held. The term of the secretary-general is five years, and he advises on and implements various ASEAN programs. The cooperation of member countries is through specialized bodies pertaining to education, energy, police, meteorology, and other areas.

Against the changing backdrop of the geopolitical situation, the ASEAN countries saw the necessity of regional cooperation on matters of common interest. The ASEAN was established during the Vietnam War, and the member countries were bound together by fear of North Vietnam and China.


The victory of communists in Indochina in the early 1970s and diminishing American involvement made the ASEAN states fearful of communism. The Kuala Lumpur declaration of November 22, 1971, called for the creation of a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) in Southeast Asia aimed at neutralization of the region.

The triumph of communism in the three Indochinese states of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam in 1975 spurred the ASEAN into action. Fearful of a militant and expanding communism, the ASEAN countries signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation at the First ASEAN Summit held at Bali, Indonesia, on February 24, 1976.

It called for renunciation of the use of force, cooperation among the nations in Southeast Asia, and noninterference in one another’s internal affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, ASEAN moved in a new direction to meet with the challenges of globalization. The three Indochinese states became members.

ASEAN map

From the early 1990s ASEAN looked for increasing economic cooperation among member countries. At the Fourth ASEAN Summit held in Singapore in January 1992 an agreement was signed for the creation of an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) within 15 years. The 1995 Bangkok Summit passed a resolution on the Agenda for Greater Economic Integration.

The time frame of AFTA was reduced to 10 years. The ASEAN Vision 2020, adopted in 1997, envisaged an ASEAN Economic Region. There would be closer economic integration along with reduction of poverty and removal of economic disparities. The Framework Agreement for the Integration of Priority Sectors and its Protocols of 1999 called for the creation of a single market and production base.

In 1994 the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established with non-ASEAN countries like the United States, Russia, China, India, and others to discuss security issues and take steps in confidence building. There was an agenda for an enhanced role of the ARF in matters of security dialogue and cooperation.


Meetings on this topic were held in the Cambodian capital and in Potsdam, Germany, in 2004 and 2005 respectively. The December 2005 ASEAN Summit, held in Kuala Lumpur, noted with satisfaction progress toward a Free Trade Area, with such countries as Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, India, and the Republic of Korea.

ASEAN cooperates with the East Asian nations of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, which were accorded the special status of ASEAN Plus Three. They expected to have a free-trade agreement by the year 2010. India enjoys a special standing with ASEAN. An ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace and Progress was signed at the Third ASEAN-India Summit in November 2004.

The ASEAN and its member countries have taken steps, through treaties, conventions, and communiqués, to prevent different types of organized crime with regional and international dimensions, such as terrorism, terrorist financing, money laundering, human trafficking, and drug smuggling.

On February 24, 1976, the ASEAN countries declared that they would cooperate with one another and with international organizations to check illegal trafficking of drugs. The ASEAN Vision 2020 resolved to tackle the problems of drug trafficking, trafficking of women, and other transnational crimes.

Through organizations like the ARF, Ministerial Meetings, the ASEAN Chiefs of Police (ASEANAPOL), the ASEAN Centre for Combating Transnational Crime (ACTC), the Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (SOMTC), and the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC), steps were taken to prevent various forms of crimes affecting Southeast Asia in particular and the world in general. The Vientiane Action Program of November 2004 contained measures to tackle the problem of terrorism.

Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) - Thai king

Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) - Thai king

Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX of the Chakri dynasty, is the reigning king of Thailand and the longest- ruling monarch in the world. His bespectacled visage is a familiar sight in Thailand, where photographs of the king and his queen consort, Sirikit, adorn the walls of many homes.

Political developments ended absolute monarchy in Thailand in 1932, and Bhumibol’s uncle King Pradjadhipok abdicated three years later, elevating 10-years-old Ananda Mahidol to the throne. On June 9, 1946, the 21-one-year-old King Ananda was found in the royal chamber dead of a gunshot wound. Three palace aides were eventually executed for their involvement.

Bhumibol Adulyadej, still a minor, ascended to the throne the next day but returned to Switzerland to continue his education. In 1950 Bhumibol returned temporarily for his wedding and official coronation. He married his fiancée, the 17-year-old M. R. Sirikit Kityakara, whom he had met in Paris while her father was the Thai ambassador to France. The royal couple returned to take up permanent residence in Thailand in 1951.


Between 1951 and 1957, King Bhumibol and the royal household found themselves subject to a “royal containment” policy. The government, headed by the antiroyalist prime minister Phibun and dominated by the military, vigorously circumscribed the influence of the monarch, restricting him primarily to a symbolic role in traditional and religious ceremonies.

The situation changed in 1957 when a rival military faction, led by Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, worked with a royalist faction to topple the Phibun government. Sarit and his coconspirators apparently had sought an audience with the king to inform him of their plans. In turn, King Bhumibol designated Sarit the military protector of Bangkok during the period of upheaval. This marked the beginning of a partnership between Sarit and the king.

Field Marshal Sarit and the king enjoyed a cordial working relationship. Sarit, who appreciated the value of promoting King Bhumibol both as a rallying point in Thai political life and as an antidote to communist influence, astutely included the monarch as a junior partner in governance.

Consequently, King Bhumibol’s role in Thailand became increasingly visible and influential. He and Queen Sirikit toured the country, visited foreign nations, and in general became prominent symbols of Thailand. His popularity in the country remains unquestioned.

Even though the king is generally above politics, he has used his stature to intervene in political crises. In 1992 a political crisis brewed when demonstrators protested the appointment as prime minister a leader of the military coup that had ousted a democratically elected government the previous year. The king intervened, mediating a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

King Bhumibol’s popularity in the country is also the result of his and the royal family’s efforts to improve the livelihood of ordinary Thai citizens. The king and other members of his family have been closely involved with agricultural, environmental, and social welfare projects that have endeared them to the populace.