Founded on August 8, 1967 in Bangkok with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, ASEAN is an eleven-member intergovernmental organization headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia. Its founding was driven by Cold War-era concerns about communist expansion in Southeast Asia, though the declaration itself focused on accelerating regional economic, social, and cultural development. Membership expanded gradually — Brunei in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. Timor-Leste joined as the eleventh member in October 2025. The ASEAN Charter, adopted in 2007 and entering into force in 2008, gave the bloc formal legal status. The organization operates across three community pillars — political-security, economic, and socio-cultural — and remains the central multilateral forum for Southeast Asian regional cooperation.