ASEAN-Accent on Regional Co-operation

ASEAN Accent on Regional Co-operation Harish Chandola THE summit meeting of the five-member Association of South Fast Asian Nations (ASEAN), held in Bali on February 23 and 21, had two aims: (1) greater co-operation between the five members states in all fields to show the world that these non-socialist states were determined to stick together and maintain their identity, now that Southeast Asia had been divided into socialist and non-socialist States; (2) to see to it that whatever decisions were taken on co-operation among them were implemented. The summit was necessitated because ASEAN had in its nine- year existence failed to bring about any meaningful co-operation among the member countries. The Foreign Ministers met yearly and made recommendations, but most of them remained un- implemented, because they lacked mandatory power. For instance, if the Foreign Ministers had recommended certain measures for co-operation in the fields of trade and industry, then those measures had to be implemented by the trade and industry ministers of the ASEAN countries, and not by the Foreign Ministers. I Fence it was decided in May last that a meeting of the Heads of Government be called.