ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

Topics

Topic A: Energy Security

Topic B: Disaster Relief Management

Information

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established in 1994 and is the principal forum for multilateral security dialogue in Asia. It provides a setting in which members can discuss current regional security issues and develop cooperative measures to enhance peace and security in the region. It draws together twenty-seven countries from the Asia Pacific region: the ten ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states, the ten ASEAN dialogue partners (Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States), as well as Bangladesh, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, East Timor, Mongolia, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka.

ARF meetings are held at Foreign Minister level and decision-making is characterized by consensus. The 1995 ARF Concept Paper set out a three-stage, evolutionary approach to the ARF’s development, moving from confidence-building to preventive diplomacy and, in the long term, towards a conflict resolution capability. But efforts to develop tools of preventive diplomacy and conflict management are still at an early stage. The current focus areas of the forum are Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime, Disaster Relief, Maritime Security, and Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. Further information on the ASEAN Regional Forum can be found here.