ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn delivers opening remarks at the 59th ASEAN Day celebrations in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 8. (ASEAN Secretariat)
ASEAN member states commenced celebrations for the organisation’s 59th anniversary on August 8, with Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn delivering opening remarks that underscored the bloc’s progress and offered a reflection on its journey since 1967.
“What began in 1967 as an association of five countries has grown into a community of eleven Member States, home to nearly 700 million people, one of the world’s most dynamic economic regions, and an important contributor to peace and stability in the wider Indo-Pacific,” the Secretary-General emphasised.
He specifically highlighted the current global geopolitical landscape, which is complicated by a deepening interdependence coupled with intensifying contestation. Such uncertainty and volatility are far different from the global environment during ASEAN’s inception, and the Secretary-General noted that crises born from these dynamics have severely driven-up cost-of-living-living pressures. However, he insisted that these challenges also create opportunities, reminding member states that the bloc can only leverage them if they nurture the habit of working together to maintain ASEAN unity, solidarity and centrality.
Furthermore, pointing to the Philippines’ chairmanship under the theme “Navigating Our Shared Future, Together”, Secretary-General Kao reminded member states that realising this objective will depend on “how we respond to challenges that transcend national borders”.
Crucially, he elaborated on three reasons that made the 2026 ASEAN Day “especially meaningful”: the accession of Timor-Leste as ASEAN’s 11th member state, the marking of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), as well as the inaugural year of the ASEAN Vision 2045: Our Shared Future.
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