ASEAN,아세안 "차기 정상회담에 미얀마 군정 지도자 배제"

 

[속보] 아세안 "차기 정상회담에 미얀마 군정 지도자 배제"

 

매일경제

• 신미진 기자
• 입력 : 2021.10.16 13:51:31 수정 : 2021.10.16 14:28:48

아세안(ASEAN·동남아시아국가연합)이 이달 말 열리는 정상회의에 미얀마 군사정부 지도자를 참석시키지 않기로 결정했다.

16일 로이터통신 등에 따르면 아세안은 전날 화상으로 외교장관 회의를 열고 민 아웅 흘라잉 미얀마군 총사령관을 청상회의에 참석시키지 않기로 결정했다고 밝혔다. 대신 비정치적인 인물이 회의에 참석하도록 요청할 계획이라고 덧붙였다.

미얀마에서는 지난 2월 군부 쿠데타가 발생한 뒤 현재까지 저항이 이어지고 있다. 미얀마 정치범지원협회(AAPP) 통계에 따르면 이달까지 사망한 시민 수는 1167명에 달한다. 지난달에만 유아와 노인 등 최소 99명이 군부에 의해 목숨을 잃었다.

[신미진 매경닷컴 기자]

 

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Flag

Flag of ASEAN - Wikipedia

Emblem

Emblem of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - Wikipedia

 

Motto: "One Vision, One Identity, One Community"

Anthem: "The ASEAN Way"

 

ASEAN (/ˈɑːsiɑːn/ AH-see-ahn,[9] /ˈɑːziɑːn/ AH-zee-ahn),[10][11] officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,[12] is an economic union comprising 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia.

 

ASEAN's primary objective was to accelerate economic growth and through that social progress and cultural development. A secondary objective was to promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principle of United Nations charter. With some of the fastest growing economies in the world, ASEAN has broadened its objective beyond the economic and social spheres.

 

In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path of the European Union by agreeing to establish an ASEAN community comprising three pillars: the ASEAN security community, the ASEAN economic community, and the ASEAN socio-cultural community.

 

The ten stalks of rice in the ASEAN flag and insignia represent the ten southeast Asian countries bound together in solidarity.

 

ASEAN also regularly engages other countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. A major partner of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances and dialogue partners and is considered by many as a global powerhouse, the central union for cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and a prominent and influential organization. It is involved in numerous international affairs, and hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world.

 

Founding

ASEAN was preceded by an organisation formed on 31 July 1961 called the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA),

a group consisting of Thailand, the Philippines, and the Federation of Malaya. ASEAN itself was created on 8 August 1967, when the foreign ministers of five countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, signed the ASEAN Declaration.  As set out in the Declaration, the aims and purposes of ASEAN are to accelerate economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in the region, to promote regional peace, collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest, to provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities, to collaborate for better utilization of agriculture and industry to raise the living standards of the people, to promote Southeast Asian studies and to maintain close, beneficial co-operation with existing international organisations with similar aims and purposes.

 

The creation of ASEAN was motivated by a common fear of communism. The group achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in the balance of power after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The region's dynamic economic growth during the 1970s strengthened the organization, enabling ASEAN to adopt a unified response to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979.

 

ASEAN's first summit meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, resulted in an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, and a Declaration of Concord. The end of the Cold War allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s, ASEAN emerged as a leading voice on regional trade and security issues.  

 

On 15 December 1995, the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty was signed to turn Southeast Asia into a nuclear-weapon-free zone. The treaty took effect on 28 March 1997 after all but one of the member states had ratified it. It became fully effective on 21 June 2001 after the Philippines ratified it, effectively banning all nuclear weapons in the region.

 

Expansion

On 7 January 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member and on 28 July 1995, following the end of the Cold War, Vietnam joined as the seventh member. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997.

 

Cambodia was to join at the same time as Laos and Myanmar, but a coup in 1997 and other internal instability delayed its entry.  It then joined on 30 April 1999 following the stabilization of its government.

In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.  In response, the organisation awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the UN.