ASEAN Explained: Asia's Version of the European Union? - TLDR News

ASEAN (or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) comprises 10 significant Southeast Asian nations, including Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The union has been relatively hands-off historically - but with one of their members, Myanmar, becoming increasingly controversial people are beginning to ask if ASEAN will step up and become a fully-fledged 'European Union' of Asia.

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[JohnInSingapore]

I'm from Singapore. The fundamental difference between ASEAN and EU is that we are not ideologically aligned. So the basis of ASEAN was to create a forum for stability and economic prosperity. I personally hope that one day ASEAN will evolve to more than this but I doubt this will happen in my lifetime

[ashaide]

We ASEAN member state citizens can enter other member states with only our passports and not have to get a Visa, mostly for a month. It's encouraged a good amount of internal tourism and sometimes makes labor migration easy.

[legiahuy]

We Southeast Asian nations proud of being a ASEAN’s member. Love you all from Viet Nam 🇻🇳🇰🇭🇮🇩🇲🇲🇵🇭🇸🇬🇲🇾🇹🇭🇱🇦🇧🇳

7:12 Technically ASEAN did not refuse to involve Myanmar in its 2021 annual summit; they excluded the junta leader and said that it would accept a non-political representative from Myanmar, but the junta said on 25 Oct that it would only agree to its leader or a minister attending, the day before the summit began. As such, the junta refused to send a representative to the summit.

Nonetheless, this video was pretty interesting to watch. Nice work!

[SamuelKissinger]

You should honestly make a TLDR Asia channel.

[fbkintanar]

ASEAN has had a positive influence in regional tourism, with no visas needed for short term visits as mentioned by Rob' Ramos. The moves towards free trade and and economic community have been slow, but I think steady. The range of consumer products in grocery stores has a lot more products from the region compared to a few decades ago, although China imports are also up. I think many companies find it easier to export to the ASEAN market because rules are somewhat unified, and the recent launch of RCEP with most of ASEAN's dialog partners (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, China) might bring more changes. I don't think political integration like the EU or even regions of Africa will be on the agenda any time soon, but ASEAN serves an important political function in reminding national governments to stay within international norms. That doesn't always amount to full democracy, but its better than some of the alternatives the region has seen in the not too distant past.

[gerbile]

I think worth mentioning is the Currency Interchangeability Agreement which was originally between Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia (which pulled out soon) and is now just between Singapore and Brunei since financial stability and economies were significant points covered.

[ManofHalal]

If ASEAN was like The EU then it could counter-balance big powers like China and even USA. It could also be one of the biggest trade powers in the world.

[RusticKey]

As an Indonesian I believe in the non-intervention policy. It's what kept ASEAN stable and going for so long. Each member state has their own sets of problems anyway so we should get each of our own shits sorted out first.

[RoScFan]

SE asia is incredibly diverse. It would be so incredibly interesting to see what an EU version of that region would be like. Imagine that a parliament where almost half the people are muslim - due to indonesia, and the rest are buddhists and Catholics, and imagine countries like hypercapitalist Singapore in a union with communist vietnam. ASEAN politics would make for incredible news. It would also weaken China.

[bangscutter]

It's precisely because of the non-intervention policy that has kept this association going for so long. The association right now mostly has limited trade, travel and cultural ties only. Any military cooperation is only directed against non-state parties like terrorists and pirates.

[ousamadearudesuwa]

As a Filipino, I will say that the our stance at Non-Intervention for ASEAN is more beneficial than anything else since that would also prevent the main problems that triggered minor wars in the region as well as the issue concerning Timor Leste back when the Philippines decided to send volunteers to help the Timorese in their war for independence from Indonesia as UN Peacekeepers, or when we agreed with the Moro National Liberation Front in a treaty with Indonesia as the third party to formalize the recognition of their reason for being in a separatist movement during and after the Marcos Dictatorship. It actually helped a lot as every Member state holds their independence dearly and if anyone intervenes, then ASEAN will crumble faster than a regional dispute.

And as for the Military Junta in Myanmar, its best to settle it diplomatically or have a member-state to actually intervene without using ASEAN as a pretext or shield. As intervening will sour the relations it still has.

[JRAS_]

ASEAN has for its member states democracies, authoritarian one party states, and monarchies. They needed a high degree of tolerance for it to be even remotely functional. That being said, I think decades of cooperation and trust should allow them more wiggle room. I do hope that we will care more about the internal affairs of each other.

[InsolventGene]

As a Malaysian my I see ASEAN as a convenient platform for economic discussions and agreements and not a political agreement to hold each other accountable. When a member country commits human rights violations or even genocide they all turn a blind eye to it, they can surely do with some big improvements.

[Enseaclopedia]

For Myanmar problem, last thing I hear from our Indonesian foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, is ASEAN try to use shuttle diplomacy to find the best result between the two party.

[cageybee]

the African Union managed to come together to solve The Gambia's military coup crisis by invading and ousting their dictator, it went so well hardly anyone talks about it. maybe something similar could be worked out here? i mean the AU was even more dysfunctional than ASEAN was when they pulled that off.

[jsb]

I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on ASEAN, investigating how its response to the Rohingya Crisis reflects on its normative values. For anyone interested, Amitav Acharya and Mely Caballero-Anthony are leading academics when it comes to studies of ASEAN. They've written some great pieces explaining their regional governance mechanisms and the nature of ASEAN's status as either a security community or a security regime.

[rsiow]

I support ASEAN's non intervention policy. We don't want to ever set a precedent for any ASEAN members to destabilise one another. That makes us easy pickings for the US and China. As for what's going on in Myanmar, by all means, strong diplomatic action should be taken but we shall never cross that line of subterfuge and interference.

[insertname]

I hate some of these comments saying ASEAN should be more like the EU. If anything, the EU should be more like ASEAN. Non-intervention policy should be adopted precisely because it helps with the stability of the region and ensures true sovereignity of states. This is unlike fringe states in the EU who have to take up the bulk of refugee and migrant crisis from the middle east and Africa. They end up having less say in their own state's affairs than the EU.

Similarly, plenty of infringement into Poland simply due to having different political ideologies, and it's not even the harmful kind. Examples include Poland's immigrant policy and teaching kids lgbtqp+. It's almost like the EU wants to be a superstate of its own, with larger countries having the final call on all countries' policy making.

ASEAN on the other hand, understands that internal matters are far more complicated and that intervention brings about more negatives than positives. No citizen in ASEAN wants his or her soldiers to fight for an outside cause, much to the detriment of their nation and possibly but never assuredly the benefit of the nation whose internal matters got hijacked.

Instead, we focus on foreign affairs, cooperation and trade so as to uplift the region with a neutral stance. This allows freedom for each country to follow their own ideologies and preserve their cultures.

[drewsarmiento]

As a Filipino, I have to say. I genuinely LOVE all my ASEAN brothers and sisters. We may have our little rivalries here and there but when one needs help in ASEAN, we do all help each other.