ABSTRACT
Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) notable presence in the regional arena can evidently be discerned from its dynamic trade development and integration policy as well as from a number of enterprising collaborative efforts of trading arrangements in East Asia. ASEAN’s own initiative like ASEAN Free Trade Agreement had given the attention to its dialogue partners for a better part. The Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 came to stimulate further the way ASEAN thought in favour of broader economic regionalism, starting with the regional monetary cooperation, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, which gave birth to the process of ASEAN+3, including China, Japan and Korea. The chapter discusses the role of ASEAN in building a regional Free Trade Agreement in Asia, and analyses the implications from expansion of Trans-Pacific Partnership and East Asia Summit into ASEAN+8. Region building in Asia started in Southeast Asia with the founding of ASEAN in 1967.
