Initial Situation
The evolution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began with its establishment in 1967. Since then, ASEAN's community-building has been further consolidated with the adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2008 and the Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015, which is based on the three pillars of political and security community (ASEAN Political-Security Community, APSC), economic community, and socio-cultural community. During the 2013 ASEAN Summit in Brunei, ASEAN had decided to expand the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) to become the "control center" of ASEAN.
ASEAN has so far successfully contributed to economic growth, peace, and regional stability among its ten member states. However, lasting peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region remain important challenges for the entire region.
Goal
The project aims to strengthen ASEAN's working and cooperative structures (secretariat and working groups) in the area of rules-based security policy, as well as the institutional capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat to communitize ASEAN's goals and achievements. This contributes to improving the conditions for peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific through more effective and recognized cooperation among ASEAN countries (overall objective).
Approach
The overall objective is directly related to the German government's Indo-Pacific guidelines. First, it describes strengthening peace, security, and stability in the region, which includes expanding the German government's security policy engagement and supporting ASEAN's security cooperation formats. Second, the Indo-Pacific Guidelines enshrine the expansion of cooperation with ASEAN institutions and continued support for the ASEAN Secretariat. Cooperation with ASEAN in this regard focuses on technical and methodological support to the work areas and objectives of individual work units of the ASEAN Secretariat and selected ASEAN working groups. In addition, the ASEAN Secretariat is supported in the areas of integration and external relations. The project is implemented by a team stationed at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.