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

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.

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

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!

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

You should honestly make a TLDR Asia channel.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Indonesia : Democracy (Majority Islam) Philippines : Democracy (Majority Catholic) Vietnam : Communist (Majority Atheist) Thailand : Constitutional Monarchy (Majority Theravada Buddhism) Myanmar : Military Junta/Police State (Majority Theravada Buddhism) Malaysia : Elective Monarchy (Majority Moslem) Cambodia : Constitutional Monarchy (Majority Theravada Buddhism) Laos : Communist (Majority Theravada Buddhism) Singapore : Capitalist (Buddhism) Brunei : Absolute Monarchy (Islam) East Timor : Democracy (Majority Catholic) Democracies : 3 Communists : 2 Capitalist : 1 Monarchies : 4 Police State : 1 Unite under one parliament

One major tenet of ASEAN not mentioned is its policy of consensus wherein no major decisions shall be made unless all members of the association agree to it. This is particularly significant on several issues facing the region such as the South China Sea dispute.