Which of the following statements about ASEAN are correct ? 1. The Chairmanship of ASEAN rotates annually based on the alphabetical order of the English names of Member States. 2. The Chairmanship is decided by voting among the Member States. 3. "One Vision, One Identity, One Community" is the ASEAN motto. 4. 12th August is celebrated as ASEAN Day. Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)3 and 4 only
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4
Correct — B, 1 and 3 only. The two survivors are the chairmanship rule and the motto. The ASEAN Charter fixes an annual rotation of the chair taken in the alphabetical order of the English names of the member states, which is why the chair moves steadily down the list from Brunei Darussalam through Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and onwards. That same rule is what kills statement 2 — because the order is settled in advance by the alphabet, there is nothing for the members to vote on. The motto in statement 3 is correct as printed: One Vision, One Identity, One Community. Statement 4 gets the day wrong. The ASEAN Declaration was signed at Bangkok on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and 8 August, not 12 August, is kept as ASEAN Day.
- (a)1 and 2 only — Statements 1 and 2 cannot both be right, since they describe two different ways of choosing the same office. The alphabetical rotation in statement 1 is the Charter rule, so the voting in statement 2 is not.
- (c)3 and 4 only — Correct on the motto, wrong on the date. ASEAN Day is 8 August, the anniversary of the Bangkok Declaration of 1967; 12 August has no standing in the ASEAN calendar.
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4 — Fails on both of the false statements at once — the voting claim and the 12 August claim.
ASEAN was founded by the Bangkok Declaration of 8 August 1967 with five members and grew to ten by 1999, adding Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Since the ASEAN Charter came into force in 2008 it has a legal personality, a Secretariat at Jakarta and a written rule book, and the chair rotates annually, the chairing country hosting the summits and setting the year's theme. Its working method is consensus and non-interference, often called the ASEAN Way.
Statements 1 and 2 are placed together deliberately, and noticing that they contradict each other does most of the work: two different selection methods for the same chairmanship cannot both be in force, so at least one has to go, and the options are built so that dropping statement 2 leaves only one survivor pairing. The remaining decision is between the motto and the date, and here the date is the softer target because 8 August has an anchor — it is the day the Declaration was signed. Anchoring the exam: at the time of this paper in September 2023 ASEAN had ten members. That has since changed. Timor-Leste, admitted in principle in 2022, became the eleventh member on 26 October 2025, so a present-day version of this question would be answered against a list of eleven names, and the alphabetical rotation now runs through one more country.
- ASEAN was founded by the Bangkok Declaration signed on 8 August 1967; ASEAN Day is 8 August.
- The five founders were Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
- The motto is One Vision, One Identity, One Community.
- The chairmanship rotates annually in the alphabetical order of the English names of the member states, under the ASEAN Charter.
- Timor-Leste became the eleventh member on 26 October 2025; the Secretariat is at Jakarta and Papua New Guinea has observer status.
- Assuming an international organisation must elect its chair. ASEAN's chair is fixed by alphabetical rotation, not by a vote.
- Muddling ASEAN Day, 8 August, with other August dates in the calendar.
- Carrying forward the figure of ten members. Timor-Leste joined in October 2025, making eleven.
As a multi-statement item mixing an institutional rule with a symbol or a date, or as a membership question asking which country is or is not a member.
Consider the following countries : 1. Brunei Darussalam 2. East Timor 3. Laos Which of the above is/are member/members of ASEAN ?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only
The membership side of the same organisation, and a useful reminder of how much has moved. When that paper was set, East Timor was outside ASEAN; it joined as Timor-Leste in October 2025.
Consider the following statements about the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): 1. It is a comprehensive free trade agreement between the ASEAN member States and ASEAN’s free trade agreement partners. 2. India opted out of RCEP. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
The economic face of the same grouping, asked two sessions later. RCEP is built outward from ASEAN and its trade partners, so the membership and the working method matter there as much as here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which country became the eleventh member of ASEAN in October 2025?
- (a)Papua New Guinea
- (b)Timor-Leste
- (c)Sri Lanka
- (d)Bangladesh
Answer(b) Timor-Leste — admitted on 26 October 2025, having been accepted in principle in 2022. Papua New Guinea remains an observer.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The ASEAN Declaration, which founded the organisation in 1967, was signed in which city?
- (a)Jakarta
- (b)Manila
- (c)Bangkok
- (d)Kuala Lumpur
Answer(c) Bangkok — signed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The Secretariat, however, is at Jakarta.