ASEAN Regional Forum

The Twenty-Sixth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and Post Ministerial Conference, which were held in Singapore on 23-25 July 1993, agreed to establish the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The inaugural meeting of the ARF was held in Bangkok on 25 July 1994.

Objectives

The objectives of the ASEAN Regional Forum are outlined in the First ARF Chairman’s Statement (1994), namely:

1. to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern; and
2. to make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 27th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (1994) stated that “The ARF could become an effective consultative Asia-Pacific Forum for promoting open dialogue on political and security cooperation in the region. In this context, ASEAN should work with its ARF partners to bring about a more predictable and constructive pattern of relations in the Asia Pacific.”

Achievements

On the tenth year of the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ARF Ministers met in Phnom Penh on 18 June 2003 and declared that “despite the great diversity of its membership, the forum had attained a record of achievements that have contributed to the maintenance of peace, security and cooperation in the region.” They cited in particular:

• The usefulness of the ARF as a venue for multilateral and bilateral dialogue and consultations and the establishment of effective principles for dialogue and cooperation, featuring decision-making by consensus, non-interference, incremental progress and moving at a pace comfortable to all.
• The willingness among ARF participants to discuss a wide range of security issues in a multilateral setting.
• The mutual confidence gradually built by cooperative activities.
• The cultivation of habits of dialogue and consultation on political and security issues.
• The transparency promoted by such ARF measures as the exchange of information relating to defense policy and the publication of defense white papers and
• The networking developed among national security, defense and military officials of ARF participants.

Participants

The current participants in the ARF are as follows: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United States, and Viet Nam.

The ASEAN Regional Forum adopted in July 1996 the following criteria for participation:

1. Commitment:
   All new participants, who will all be sovereign states, must subscribe to, and work cooperatively to help achieve the ARF’s key goals. Prior to their admission, all new participants should agree to abide by and respect fully the decisions and statements already made by the ARF. All ASEAN members are automatically participants of ARF.
2. Relevance:
   A new participant should be admitted only if it can be demonstrated that it has an impact on the peace and security of the “geographical footprint” of key ARF activities (i.e. Northeast and Southeast Asia as well as Oceania).
3. Gradual expansion:
   Efforts must be made to control the number of participants to a manageable level to ensure the effectiveness of the ARF.
4. Consultations:
   All applications for participation should be submitted to the Chairman of the ARF, who will consult all the other ARF participants at the SOM and ascertain whether a consensus exists for the admission of the new participant. Actual decisions on participation will be approved by the Ministers.

ARF Chair

The ARF is chaired by the ASEAN Chair of that year.

For the period of January – December 2024, the Chairman of the ARF and the ARF Senior Officials’ Meeting are:

ARF Chair Contact Points

Mr. Khampaserth HOMDOUANGXAY
Deputy Director of APSC Division
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR
Email: khampaserth@gmail.com

ARF Directory

ARF Directory

ARF Unit

ASEAN established the ARF Unit at the ASEAN Secretariat on 26 June 2004. Based on its Terms of Reference, the ARF Unit’s role and functions are as follows: (1) to support the enhanced role of the ARF Chair, including interaction with other regional and international organizations, defense officials dialogue and Track II organizations; (2) to function as depository of ARF documents/papers; (3) to manage database/registry; and (4) to provide secretarial works and administrative support, including serving as the ARF’s institutional memory.

Contact:

ARF Unit
ASEAN Secretariat
70A Jalan Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta, Indonesia 12110
Tel. (6221) 7262991; 7243372
Fax. (6221) 7398234; 7243504
Email: ARFUnit@asean.org