After admitting Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), ASEAN included Cambodia in 1999 to form the ten-member bloc. December 31, 2015 was a milestone in the history of ASEAN as the ASEAN Community was established, serving as an important hallmark in the regional connectivity. The ASEAN Community has been the first of its kind formed in Asia.
Overcoming various challenges over the past 50 years, ASEAN has become the most successful regional cooperation bloc. From a five-member association born in the conflicting situation of the Cold War, ASEAN expanded and grew into a close-knit community of ten countries in the Southeast Asian region. From a region of conflicts and tensions, Southeast Asia has become a region of peace, stability and development with the connectivity and cooperation promotion of ASEAN. From countries diversified in various aspects, the ten nations have become members of the unified ASEAN Community, whose practices of dialogue, consensus, and cooperation in dealing with shared problems of the region have increasingly been strengthened. From a sub-regional cooperation mechanism, ASEAN has grown into an association with the “core” and “central” role among cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region, gathering the engagement of major powers and other countries in the region and the world as well as other international organizations with high commitments to peace, stability, and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
These achievements have not only demonstrated the righteousness of the path that ASEAN has been steadily embarking on for half a century now, but also strengthened the resolve of ASEAN countries through enhancing the connectivity and integration to shape a brighter future for the ten member countries. The ASEAN Community 2025 Vision has highlighted the commitments of ASEAN leaders to turn the association into “a peaceful, stable and self-reliant community with enhanced capabilities to effectively respond to challenges,” “a region open to the outside global community, while maintaining its central role,” and “an ASEAN capable of seizing opportunities and resolving challenges in the next decade” by 2025.
Vietnam officially became the seventh member of the bloc on July 28, 1995. Since then, Vietnam has played an increasingly important role in ASEAN and more actively participated in and contributed to common activities of ASEAN with responsibility highly appreciated by member countries. Vietnam and other members actively promoted the completion of the idea of a ten-member ASEAN, contributing to opening up a new chapter for the region and laying the essential foundation for ASEAN to become a comprehensively and deeply connected association.
Over the past 22 years, Vietnam has been standing side by side with other ASEAN members to overcome differences and what has been left by history to boost comprehensive cooperation and jointly build a region of peace, stability and prosperity in Southeast Asia. For that period of time, nearly half of the history of the association, Vietnam has always contributed with efforts to the common success of the bloc, willing to take any responsibilities, leaving an image of a responsible, pro-active and prestigious member in the “common roof” of the ASEAN Community.
The region and the world in the 21st century are characterized by complicated and unpredictable developments, notably the shift of the power balance among countries and power centers. Along with geo-strategic changes, challenges and new factors, such as extremism and international terrorism, increased populism and protectionism, more troublesome trouble-spots, and fiercer competition among major powers in some regions, emerged. It is surely that lying ahead of ASEAN are difficulties and challenges; however, an ASEAN that has gone through challenges that it has never yielded will never fail. In the course of the 50 years of ASEAN, 22 years of Vietnam’s participation is not quite long, but has helped create the foundation for us to believe that the ASEAN Community will travel far. And in this path, Vietnam has been and will always be side by side with ASEAN to reach for a brighter future of the whole region.
Translated by Huu Duong
Vietnam joining ASEAN for a brighter future Related image(s)
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