U.S. Accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). July 23, 2009

摘要

In February 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the Obama Administration would launch its formal interagency process to pursue accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), one of the ten-nation organizations core documents. The Administration reportedly hopes to announce its accession at the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministerial meeting July 22-23, 2009. This report analyzes the legal and diplomatic issues involved with accession to the TAC. ASEAN is Southeast Asias primary multilateral organization. Its ten member-nations include over 500 million people. Collectively, ASEAN is one of the United States largest trading partners, constituting about 5%-6% of total U.S. trade. Geographically, Southeast Asia includes some of the worlds most critical sea lanes, including the Straits of Malacca, through which pass a large percentage of the worlds trade. The TAC was first negotiated in 1976 and subsequently amended to allow non-regional countries to accede. Fifteen countries have done so, including U.S. allies Japan, South Korea, and Australia, as well as China, Russia, and India. Within ASEAN, accession to the TAC by non-members often is seen as a symbol of commitment to engagement in Southeast Asia, and to the organizations emphasis on multilateral processes. The United States is the only major Pacific power not to have acceded, one of many pieces of evidence that Southeast Asian leaders have cited in arguing that the United States has neglected Southeast Asia generally, and ASEAN specifically. Southeast Asian leaders generally have welcomed the Obama Administrations move, which seems to be designed to boost the United States standing in Southeast Asia by expanding the multilateral component of U.S. policy in the region.