ASEAN Summit and its History

 Since 1967, ten ASEAN Summits have been held in ASEAN member countries on a rotational basis in alphabetical order as follows;

i. 1st ASEAN Formal Summit, Bali, Indonesia, 0n 23-24 February 1976

ii. 2nd ASEAN Formal Summit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 405 August 1977

iii. 3rd ASEAN Formal Summit, Manila, the Philippines on 14-15 December 1987

iv. 4th ASEAN Formal Summit, Singapore on 28 January 1992

v. 5th ASEAN Formal Sumiit, Thailand on 14-15 December 1995

vi. 1st ASEN Informal Summit, Jakarta, Indonesia on 30 November 1996

vii. 2nd ASEAN Informal Summit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 14-16 December 1997

viii. 6th ASEAN Formal Summit, Ha Noi, Viet Nam on 15-16 November 1998

ix. 3rd ASEAN Informal Summit, Manila, the Philippines on 27-28 November 1999

x. 4th ASEAN Informal Summit, Singapore on 24 November 2000

In 1987, the ASEAN leaders decided to meet every three to five years. They felt that regular consultations would forge closer relations among ASEAN members and this promote peace, stability and prosperity in the regions. 

At the Fourth ASEAN Summit in Singapore in 1992, the Leaders agreed to meet formally every three years with informal meetings in between.  The concept of Informal Summit was only adopted during the Fifth ASEAN Summit in Bangkok in 1995 when the Leaders agreed to meet informally every year between the formal summits that are held every three years. The Informal summit was intended as a forum for ASEAN Leaders to meet regularly and informally to discuss issues of common cncern without a structured agenda. Thus, the First Informal Summit was held in Jakarta in 30 November 1996. The Second Informal Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur on 15-16 December 1997, which was also the commemorative summit for 30th Anniversary of ASEAN. In accordance with ASEAN traditions, which rotates the privilege of hosting ASEAN Summits in alphabatetical order, it would have been Myanmar's turn to host the Third Informal Summit in 1999, However, Myanmar deferred the privilege because it had only just joined ASEAN in 1997. This the Philippines hosted the Third ASEAN Informal Summit in Manila on 27-28 November 1999. 

At the Fourth Informal Summit in Singapore on 25-25 November 2000, the Leaders agreed to remove the distinction between formal and informal summits and the future ASEAN Summits would become "Working Summits" with less ceremony.