ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nation called ASEAN was created on 8 August 1967, when the foreign ministers of five countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, signed the ASEAN Declaration in Bangkok.
In 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member and on 28 July 1995, Vietnam joined as the seventh member. Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997. Cambodia joined in 1999. PNG and Timor Leste are the observer member and waiting for the accession to ASEAN. The ASEAN Secretariat is located at Jakarta, Indonesia and its chairmanship annually rotation and Vietnam officially took over the chairmanship in 2019.
ASEAN's priorities are to actively contribute to regional peace, stability and security, creating prosperity through regional integration and communication, raising awareness regarding ASEAN's community and identity, contributing to peace and sustainable development, and strengthening the Union's role in the international community, with a solidarity and integrity approach. The motto of ASEAN is "One Vision, One Identity, One Community".

As one of the most efficacious global union over the past 50 years, ASEAN has become an icon of international constructive cooperation and regionalism progression in Southeast Asia which mounted to ASEAN Community in 2015.

Geographically, the size of ASEAN is 4.522.518 Km2 and its population approximately reaches 650 Million people which is the 3rd largest trading bloc after NAFTA (US, Canada and Mexico) and the EU and some of its members, such as Indonesia, are seeking to become the world's fourth-largest economy by 2030. This stand has been earned in the light of extensive political-economic relations as well as the comprehensive collaboration with major strategic partners such as the US, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Russia and Brazil and actively all-embracing partnership with all international business and monetary institutions.

ASEAN's economic development and progress are knotted with political-security developments in the Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, obliging the Union to utilize wise initiatives in line with progress and economic development to maintain and expand a market which is based on export increase and trade integration to pave the way for the comprehensive development, ASEAN has formed mechanism and concluded numerous treaties in the field of economy and politics.

ASEAN members are well aware of the fact that through economic integration and forming a stable regional market, foreign direct investment finds its way easily to the region.

Relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ASEAN:
Given the historical, cultural, religious and geographical commonalities, the relations between Iran and the countries of Southeast Asia enjoys a deep-rooted and sizeable record and the diplomatic relations with these countries dates back to several decades ago.

The Islamic Republic of Iran currently has diplomatic ties with the 10 ASEAN member states and has embassies in 6 countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam.

The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Vietnam is accredited to Cambodia and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Thailand is accredited to Myanmar and Laos.
The Islamic Republic of Iran also has Non-resident ambassador in Singapore. Reciprocally, Six countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam have also opened their Embassies in Tehran and Singapore has non-resident ambassador in Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has commercial and economic relations with most of the ASEAN member countries and exports petroleum, natural gas, petrochemicals, foodstuff, nuts, machinery, cotton and rugs to these countries, and imports electronics, electrical goods, textiles, rubber, palm oil, tin, metals, wood, paper, tire, rice, bananas, tea and sugar. However, given the scientific and technical achievements and progress of the Islamic Republic of Iran in various fields, there is still great potentialities to further develope economic and commercial cooperation between Iran and the ASEAN member countries.
The first attempt to establish an organized relations with the ASEAN, Islamic Republic of Iran nominated H.E Mr. Farazandeh, the then Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Indonesia, on August 11, 2011 as the accredited Ambassador to ASEAN. His successor was H.E Mohammadi as the second and currently H.E Mr. Azad, who has presented his credentials to H.E Dato Paduka Lim Jock Hoi the Secretary General of ASEAN on February 10, 2020 is the third Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Iran to ASEAN.
In 2016, the ASEAN member states agreed to the accession of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the TAC and in August 2018, it was ratified by the Islamic Consultative Assembly. In 50th AMM (ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting) in Singapore, Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran inked the accession document and Iran officially joined TAC.
The consensus within the ASEAN countries over accepting Iran as a member of the TAC indicates the understanding of the importance of interacting with Iran as an important regional power and influential in international development.

ECO and ASEAN:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has always welcomed the expansion of the relations between the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and ASEAN, and has been active in all Summit Meetings of the ECO and ASEAN, which take place on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. Given the chairmanship of the Islamic republic of Iran over ECO, the expansion of the relations between ECO and ASEAN has fallen into priority of the Embassy.