A Political Overview of Southeast Asia

Abstract

In 1992 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated the twenty fifth anniversary of its creation; a landmark decision was made to move towards closer economic integration by way of an ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA); and a summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Southeast Asia for the first time in the thirty-year history of that organization. These were events of considerable symbolic importance for the region, highlighting the polit ical and economic progress that has been made by the ASEAN countries over the last quarter of a century. Two other events of more immediate significance for the Southeast Asian international system also occurred. One was the withdrawal of the last U.S. forces from Subie Bay naval base in the Philippines, bringing to an end the era in which U.S. military forces were based in Southeast Asia. The other was the despatch of a small contingent of Japanese troops to Cambodia in September as part of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force (UNPKF), the first Japanese military forces to set foot in Southeast Asia since 1945, an event of potentially far-reaching importance for Japan's future defence and foreign policies towards the region. Various other developments of great importance for the people of Southeast Asia also occurred throughout 1992. Economic growth continued at a brisk pace (although a little less rapidly than in 1990-91) almost everywhere in the region except the Philip pines, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, at a time when the rest of the world was sliding deeper into recession. Even Vietnam reported better results, although from very low income levels. Not only were Southeast Asian growth rates high by less developed country (LDC) standards ? and also in comparison with those of the industrial countries ? but the region's share of world trade and investment continued to increase steadily, a remarkable achievement at a time of such adverse interna tional economic conditions. Fears that the planned (but partially delayed) unification of European Community markets and currency systems in 1992, coupled with the successful creation of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), might foreshadow a division of world markets into huge protectionist trading blocs became more intense than previously. They were aggravated by uncertainty about a suc cessful conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations, which were still hanging in the balance until year end, despite last-minute progress on agriculture. The ASEAN decision to press ahead as quickly as possible towards AFTA owed a great deal to the sense of urgency to