Meetings

Meetings
[edit] ASEAN Summit
The organisation holds meetings, known as the ASEAN Summit, where heads of government of each member meet to discuss and resolve regional issues, as well as to conduct other meetings with other countries outside of the bloc with the intention of promoting external relations.

The ASEAN Leaders' Formal Summit was first held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976. Its third meeting was held in Manila in 1987 and during this meeting, it was decided that the leaders would meet every five years.[41] Consequently, the fourth meeting was held in Singapore in 1992 where the leaders again agreed to meet more frequently, deciding to hold the summit every three years.[41] In 2001, it was decided to meet annually to address urgent issues affecting the region. Member nations were assigned to be the summit host in alphabetical order except in the case of Myanmar which dropped its 2006 hosting rights in 2004 due to pressure from the United States and the European Union.[42]

By December 2008, the ASEAN Charter came into force and with it, the ASEAN Summit will be held twice in a year.

The formal summit meets for three days. The usual itinerary is as follows:

Leaders of member states would hold an internal organisation meeting.
Leaders of member states would hold a conference together with foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
A meeting, known as ASEAN Plus Three, is set for leaders of three Dialogue Partners (People's Republic of China, Japan, South Korea)
A separate meeting, known as ASEAN-CER, is set for another set of leaders of two Dialogue Partners (Australia, New Zealand).[citation needed]
ASEAN Formal Summits
Date Country Host
1st 23–24 February, 1976 Indonesia Bali
2nd 4–5 August, 1977 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
3rd 14–15 December, 1987 Philippines Manila
4th 27‒29 January, 1992 Singapore Singapore
5th 14‒15 December, 1995 Thailand Bangkok
6th 15‒16 December, 1998 Vietnam Hanoi
7th 5‒6 November, 2001 Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan
8th 4‒5 November, 2002 Cambodia Phnom Penh
9th 7‒8 October, 2003 Indonesia Bali
10th 29‒30 November, 2004 Laos Vientiane
11th 12‒14 December, 2005 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
12th 11‒14 January, 20071 Philippines2 Cebu
13th 18‒22 November, 2007 Singapore Singapore
14th3 27 February - 1 March, 2009
10-11 April 2009 Thailand Cha Am, Hua Hin
Pattaya
15th 23 October 2009 Thailand Cha Am, Hua Hin
16th 2010 Vietnam Hanoi
1 Postponed from 10‒14 December, 2006 due to Typhoon Seniang.
2 hosted the summit because Myanmar backed out due to enormous pressure from US and EU
3 This summit consisted of two parts.
The first part was moved from 12‒17 December, 2008 due to the 2008 Thai political crisis.
The second part was aborted on April 11 due to protesters entering the summit venue.

During the fifth Summit in Bangkok, the leaders decided to meet "informally" between each formal summit:[41]

ASEAN Informal Summits
Date Country Host
1st 30 November 1996 Indonesia Jakarta
2nd 14‒16 December, 1997 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
3rd 27‒28 November, 1999 Philippines Manila
4th 22‒25 November, 2000 Singapore Singapore