fulfilling on their own. Accent should be put on the fact that, although it can influence the security off all the states, not all of them are putting the same
importance on the mentioned issues. This is why functioning of the ASEAN is based on the principle of the functional approach where the states are organizing
themselves as the new threats arise. It would be proved later, in the chapter discussing about the health systems and cooperation in the region.
5.3. Beyond ASEAN
In 1992, the ASEAN Heads of State and Government came to the conclusion that if ASEAN wants to bring to the politically and economically safe region it
should make stronger ties with its neighboring countries and the countries in Asia- Pacific region. Those ties should be based on the dialogues. Two years later, the
ASEAN Regional Forum ARF was established. One of its main goals is to bring
to the “foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern; and to make significant contributions to
efforts towards confidence-building and preventive diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region”
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.
Since 1994 until today ASEAN Regional Forum ARF was able to gathered 27 countries interested in making those goals real: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Democratic Peoples‟ Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia,
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A“EAN Regio al Foru , ARF O je ti es , http:aseanregionalforum.asean.orgaboutarf-objectives.html
, [13.06.2013]
Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States,
and Vietnam.
When it was created, the ARF was meant to use more of those action oriented mechanism in the attempts to deal with the security issues in the region, including
terroristic ones. Especially because its cooperation so far was more oriented toward sharing information about the terrorists between the countries. The 911
terrorist attacks led the ARF shift its focus from inter-state conflicts to transnational issues. At its annual ministerial meeting on 30th July, 2002 the ARF
adopted a series of measures targeting terrorist financing. These measures included: freezing terrorist assets; implementation of international standards;
international cooperation on the exchange of information and outreach; technical assistance; and compliance and reporting. The ARF also formed an Inter-
Sessional Group ISG on counter- Terrorism and Translational Crime co-chaired by Malaysia and US. ARF meeting in Cambodia held on 17 June 2003 added
another transnational challenge: maritime security. Reflecting this new focus, Singapore Foreign Minister Jayakumar urged the ARF to “go beyond regional
matters to global issues.”
Based on that experience and for those purposes, The 9th ASEAN Regional Forum, Inter-Sessional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes,
that was held in Malaysia in May 2011, recognized that “transnational crimes
today are growing and are supported by strong financial linkages”
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and that there is a need for strengthening regional dialogue on counter-terrorism and
transnational crimes, without jeopardizing human rights. In the time when even AIDS is seen as the cause which can cause military conflict and have negative
influence on the regional stability, ARF also presumes that, among illicit drugs, infectious diseases, HIVAIDS, human trafficking and smuggling and more
others, terrorism is one of the biggest non-traditional security threats to ASEAN‟s
efforts to achieve regional integration, bringing to the confirmation tha t, what‟s
once being said that world peace was maintained by the theory of mutually assured destruction; now we are trying to create peace by mutual dependence is
now maybe more true than ever.
5.4 National sovereignty over regional security in ASEAN?
