Formation of an organization
where none other had existed, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
has been the most significant multilateral group for the past forty-eight years.
Since the end of the Cold War, ASEAN has grown increasingly influential whereas
much of the West and most emerging markets continue to suffer because of the
current global recession. Despite all odds the leading ASEAN economies have
recovered and are thriving. Further, the formation of ASEAN has increased
cohesion therefore helped prevent interstate conflicts in Southeast Asia,
despite several brewing territorial disputes in the region. Yet it has been seen
that the ASEAN has the potential to exert a bigger influence in the region and
especially Asia.
In August 1967, when ASEAN was founded, Southeast Asia was at the center of
world events. The Second Indochina War was raging, following the withdrawal of
France in 1954 and the end of the First Indochina War that year. In Malaysia, a
powerful communist insurgency had only recently been defeated, while in
Indonesia an army coup, launched in part to head off the rise of left-leaning
political parties, had unleashed massive communal bloodshed. The Cultural
Revolution and China’s support for several communist movements in Southeast
Asia, as well as the region’s fears of the United States abandoning its
commitment to Southeast Asia, led the noncommunist countries in the region to
form ASEAN.
The original five members—Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the
Philippines—varied from military dictatorships to city-states to nascent
democracies. ASEAN was founded with a limited charter, even compared to many
other regional organizations. The goal was to preserve long-term peace in
Southeast Asia and, by unifying, to balance the roles that outside powers,
including the United States, China, and Japan, played in Southeast Asia.
Over the past two decades, ASEAN has been the leader of East Asian trade,
economic, and security integration. ASEAN has been the only organization
consistently focused on regional integration. It has been more successful in
promoting trade integration and creating regional forums for discussing security
issues than it has been in promoting more concrete security integration or
economic integration such as more open borders, joint development of resources,
and common currencies. This is due to ASEAN’s structural weaknesses, which make
it hard for the organization to lead on security and economic integration. In
other respects, these failures are simply due to the fact that East Asia
contains countries with wider-ranging levels of development, political cultures,
and political systems than in Western Europe, and thus integration is more
challenging. Its relation with other countries in the region thus becomes
crucial in many ways.
Over the last 2 decades or so, Pakistan has sought to forge close links, promote
trade and increase cooperation in the diverse fields with the countries of
Southeast Asia and their regional organization ASEAN. Pakistan s drive to
promote relations with the ASEAN region, and particularly seek entry into the
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was motivated by political, economic and strategic
considerations. It was given a strong impetus by Pakistan s endemic rivalry with
India which stole a march on Pakistan by becoming a full dialogue partner of
ASEAN as well as by gaining membership of the ARF.
Pakistan recognizes, and in turn is recognized by, all the 10 countries of the
ASEAN. However, it does not have resident consulates in all Asean capitals nor
do all the ASEAN states maintain diplomatic outpost in Islamabad. Pakistan s
relations with the ASEAN countries are normal, friendly and unmarred by any
conflict or disputes. They cooperate with one another on full range of
international issues.
Pakistan had long-standing trade relations with several ASEAN countries- notably
with Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma and the Philippines. During
the last four or five years Pakistan s trade with Southeast Asian countries has
increased, but the volume to trade stands at US$ 1.5 billion, whereas India s
trade has been estimated at $12.5 billion and rapidly rising. The balance of
trade is heavily in favour of the Asean partners. Most of the Pakistani exports
to Asean are agricultural primary product and low-tech industrial goods.
Pakistan was accepted as a sectoral dialogue partner in 1993 and eight sectors
were identified for Asean-Pakistan cooperation. They were: trade, industry,
investment, science and technology, drugs and narcotic control, human resource
development, environment and trade.
Pakistan’s relation with ASEAN is being enhanced with a commitment towards
mutual benefit in many sectors. In this globalized era of interconnectedness,
there seems to be greater gains in cooperation with regional players that share
a lot. ASEAN and Pakistan have expressed the need to intensify their efforts to
make their Sectoral Dialogue mutually beneficial and substantive. Also, to
encourage and facilitate direct contacts between their respective government
agencies to develop practical and feasible joint cooperation activities by
matching the priorities of ASEAN.
It is believed by the Pakistani leadership that Pakistan can revive its economy
by enhancing trade with big economies of Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Pakistan has a huge scope to
promote exports to ASEAN region and for that we should take some policy measures
to encourage the private sector to capture a better share in this attractive
region. Analysts believe that ASEAN is a very important region for Pakistan as
it is a huge market of 550 million people therefore Pakistan gives priority
focus to promoting trade with ASEAN countries. Pakistan has the potential to
increase trade with ASEAN region by $ 4-5 billion in a few years and private
sector should be facilitated to realize this huge potential. It is also observed
that Pak-China Economic Corridor as a very significant project offers tremendous
trade opportunities to ASEAN nations and by developing close relations with
Pakistan, ASEAN countries could get direct access to Central Asia through Gwadar
Port.
It is asserted that Pakistan is the gateway to Middle East and ASEAN countries
should take more initiatives to strengthen relations with Pakistan to take full
benefit of its geographical location to reach other markets. Expansion of trade
and investment between Pakistan and Asean countries is eminently feasible and
will be mutually rewarding. There is considerable degree of complementarity
between the two sides. Tourism is another large untapped area of development.
Pakistan has a lot more to offer than many Southeast Asian countries, including
Malaysia and Singapore which have yet been able to develop a thriving and
profitable tourist trade. The governments and leadership from all ASEAN
countries and the Pakistani side need to reach a state where relations should
reward not only a few but all stakeholders involved.