The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) is a

peace treaty A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring ...

among

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n countries established by the founding members of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

(ASEAN), a geo-

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

organisation An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

of 10 countries located in

History

On 24 February 1976, the

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations An international organization or international o ...

was signed into force by the

leaders Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...

of the original members of ASEAN,

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

Datuk Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin. Origin The oldest ...

Hussein Onn,

Kukrit Pramoj Mom Rajawongse Kukrit Pramoj ( th, คึกฤทธิ์ ปราโมช, , ; 20 April 1911 – 9 October 1995) was a Thai politician, scholar and professor. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives of Thailand 1973–1974. He was t ...

, and

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

. Other

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

acceded to it upon or before joining the bloc. It was amended on 15 December 1987 by a

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technolog ...

to open the document for accession by states outside

, and again on 25 July 1998, to condition such accession on the consent of all member states. On 23 July 2001, the parties established the

rules of procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense or ...

of the treaty's High Council, which was stipulated in Article 14 of the document. On 7 October 2003, during the annual summit, a declaration was released that says: : ''"A High Council of

he treaty He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

shall be the important component in the ASEAN Security Community since it reflects ASEAN's commitment to resolve all differences, disputes and conflicts peacefully."'' Papua New Guinea was the first country outside ASEAN to sign the treaty in 1989. , sixteen countries outside the bloc have acceded to the treaty. On 22 July 2009, Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

signed the TAC on behalf of the United States. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

announced in 2009 its intention to accede as soon as the treaty would be amended to allow for the accession of non-states and joined accordingly on 12 July 2012. The treaty has been endorsed by the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

stating that: :''"The purposes and principles of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and its provisions for the

pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

settlement of regional disputes and for regional co-operation to achieve peace, amity and friendship among the peoples of Southeast Asia rein accordance with the

Charter of the United Nations The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...

."''

Principles

The purpose of the Treaty is to promote perpetual

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

, everlasting amity and

co-operation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

among the people of Southeast Asia which would contribute to their strength, solidarity, and closer relationship. In their relations with one another, the High Contracting Parties shall be guided by the following fundamental principles;Forty-seventh session of the General Assembly A/C.1/47/L.24 30 October 1992 :a. mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and national identity of all nations, :b. the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion, :c. non-interference in the internal affairs of one another, :d. settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful means, :e. renunciation of the threat or use of force, and :f. effective co-operation among themselves.

Parties

The following table lists the parties in the order of the dates on which they entered into the treaty:

References

External links

"Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia - Indonesia, 24 February 1976"
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Retrieved 30 November 2018. {{Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ASEAN treaties History of Southeast Asia Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia Treaties concluded in 1976 Treaties entered into force in 1976 Treaties of Indonesia Treaties of the Philippines Treaties of Malaysia Treaties of Singapore Treaties of Thailand Treaties of Brunei Treaties of Papua New Guinea Treaties of Laos Treaties of Vietnam Treaties of Cambodia Treaties of Myanmar Treaties of the People's Republic of China Treaties of Japan Treaties of India Treaties of Pakistan Treaties of South Korea Treaties of Russia Treaties of New Zealand Treaties of Mongolia Treaties of Australia Treaties of France Treaties of East Timor Treaties of Bangladesh Treaties of Sri Lanka Treaties of North Korea Treaties entered into by the European Union Treaties of the United States 1976 in Indonesia Treaties of Canada