The ASEAN Charter and Regional Economic Cooperation *

The ASEAN Charter was signed at the l:1h ASEAN Summit in November 2007. This was the first time that a Charter was signed by ASEA1V members. The ASEAN Charter will playa significant role in the development of intra-ASEAN economic cooperation and East Asian 1'egional cooperation. This is because ASEAN has been not only the sole organization of intra-regional economic cooperation in East Asia, but is also an important hub in the current East Asian regional coop-eration. This pajJer will evaluate the ASEAN Charter, which was signed at the 13'h ASEAN Summit. Section 2 discusses the experiences of intra-ASEAN economic cooperation andpoints out its characteris-tics. Section 3 analyzes the achievements of the 1:1 " ASEAN Summit, and examines the contents of the ASEAN Charter. Section 4 evaluates the ASEAN Charter. The concluding section summarizes these analy-ses, and also presents some important future issues relating to the ASEAN Charter, Intra-ASEAN economic cooperation, and East Asia