A Associação de Nações do Sudeste Asiático (em inglês: Association of Southeast Asian Nations; ANSEA/ASEAN) é uma organização regional de Estados do Sudeste asiático instituída em 8 de agosto de 1967 através da Declaração de Bangkok.
O Fórum Regional que a questão pergunta que se reuniu pela primeira vez em 1994:
"The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which met for the first time in 1994, fosters dialogue and consultation, and to promote confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the region."
Ainda, segundo a Wikipédia, o que motivou a criação da ASEAN foi o medo comum do comunismo:
"The creation of ASEAN was motivated by a common fear of communism,[39] ASEAN achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in 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 between the West and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s 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."
Fonte: Wikipédia