One night in Bangkok: Looking back at how – and why – Asean began

IT must have been one of those early August nights 50 years back at a beach resort in Bang Saen, southeast of Bangkok, over the light-hearted banter that came with what was described as the “sports-shirt diplomacy” of serious figures – Foreign Ministers all, from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – that a meeting of the minds was finally arrived at: On August 8, 1967, the Bangkok Declaration, the founding document of the then-five member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), was signed. An emergent power bloc was born.

In the years that followed, Brunei Darussalam, in 1984; Vietnam, in 1985; Laos and Myanmar, in 1997; and Cambodia, in 1999; subsequently joined, bringing Asean membership to 10 countries at present.