ASEAN: building a Socio-Cultural Community

In 2007 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) launched a Socio-Cultural Community as one of three pillars (the other two being the Economic and Political-Security Communities) comprising the ASEAN Community, to be completed by 2015. This represented a new departure for ASEAN, which in the past has cooperated mainly on security and economic matters. To date, however, progress on the Socio-Cultural Community has been limited.