ASEAN turns 42, looks to the future

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations celebrated its 42nd anniversary Friday with a series of activities highlighting more than four decades of strong regional cooperation. In Korea, the ASEAN Committee in Seoul, held a flag-raising ceremony and reception at the Malaysian embassy on Aug. 7.

Participants included Korean government officials, members of the National Assembly, the private sector, academia and the media.

"With its 42nd birthday, ASEAN looks towards deeper integration as it seeks to build an ASEAN Community by 2015, which will further unite its combined population of 560 million and land area of 4.48 million square kilometers," Malaysian Ambassador and chair of the ASC Dato' Ramlan Bin Ibrahim.

"The ASEAN Charter, ratified by all ASEAN members, will act as the firm foundation in ASEAN's move to become a rules-based, people-oriented and integrated entity."

Externally, Ramlan said that ASEAN aims to further intensify regional ties and enhance people-to-people exchanges through forward-looking projects and closer networks with regional partners.

"ASEAN continues to forge ahead in its relationship with its 10 dialogue partners" (Australia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States).

Korea recently hosted the ASEAN Commemorative Summit on Jeju Island at the beginning of June to celebrate 20 years of dialogue partnership.

In cementing closer ties between the two entities, the meeting also sought to further expand cooperation in new areas, including green technology.

Founded in 1967 to promote political cooperation among stakeholders, ASEAN has expanded to include more member countries and more areas of cooperation in diverse sectors such as trade, security and development.

It is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Malaysia is the current chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Seoul.