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in July 1997, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated its thirtieth year of founding amid the admissions of Mynmar (Burma) and Laos into its organization, moving one step closer to achieving its grand goal of having all the ten Southeast Asian nations in the Association (Cambodia, the only country among the ten kept out of ASEAN, will join the Southeast Asian body in the near future). ASEAN in its thirty years of existence has moved from a weak and somehow unimportant association to a dynamic one. Economic relations of the early periods have been institutionalized, paving the way for the success to spill-over to security cooperation. Consequently, “ASEAN Regional Forum” (ARF) was founded in 1993 and made possible the consensus building concerning security issues.
The policy of constructive engagement’ to facilitate long - lasting cooperation and engagement of the major powers of the greater East Asia region has become the pivotal for regional cooperation. ASEAN’s success is to extend regional cooperation from economic areas to secutity ones. This development has acted as the guarantor of the Association’s survival and dynamism. The creation of a constructive environment, institutionalization of regional cooperation and partnership, transformation of the Association into a supra-national organization, the tie between the national interests of the ASEAN countries and regional interests, priority for regional cooperation, ASEAN’s function as a unitary institution against expansionist policies of the great powers of East Asia, common policies towards regional and international issues, are the other achivements of ASEAN.