VGP – On the occasion of ASEAN’s 54th founding anniversary (August 8th 1967 – August 8th 2021), Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son wrote an article titled “ASEAN’s 54 years: Fire tests gold”.
August 8th 1967 marks the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – one of the world’s important and successful regional organization for cooperation. This set off a process of in-depth integration; construction and maintenance of peace, stability and development in South East Asia, as well as throughout the region.
From a group of South East Asian countries divided by war, ASEAN has overcome numerous obstacles to become a regional organization of 10 member states operating in a common framework. ASEAN is now a common home that bonds 650 million people with diverse cultural identities; an economic community with its combined GDP ranking 5th globally; a reliable and important partner of many countries; playing a central role in the region’s important dialogue, cooperation and connectivity processes.