- What is ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)?
- Working of ARF
- What is Track-1 and Track-2 Diplomacy?
- 3-stage Confidence Building process
- ARF Member states
- ARF process is three-tiered
- Four Intersessional meetings of ISMs
- Vision Statement for ARF for 2020
- Hanoi Plan of Action (POA)
- India and ARF:
- Mock Questions for IAS Mains (GS Paper 2)
- Mock Interview Questions for UPSC IAS Exam
What is ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)?
Birth |
1994 |
Function |
- Dialogue platform between between the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and its full dialogue partners.
- To provide diplomatic solutions to regional problems.
|
Working of ARF
- Involves minimal institutionalization,
- The chair of the ARF is rotated annually. The ARF Chairman’s Statement, the organization’s official declaration, is issued after each ARF meeting.
- decision making by consensus,
- use of both “first track” (official) and “second track” (nonofficial) diplomacy.
What is Track-1 and Track-2 Diplomacy?
- first-track diplomatic meetings consist of gatherings of leading officials to discuss security measures,
- Second-track meetings consist of scholars, government individuals not acting in their official capacity, private think tanks, and other individuals and organizations (NGOs).
Role of second-track procedures distinguishes ARF from most other international organizations, which generally treat non-official diplomatic measures as residual and peripheral.
3-stage Confidence Building process
Stage No. |
|
1 |
Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) |
2 |
development of preventive diplomacy |
3 |
Elaboration of approaches to conflicts. |
ASEAN Regional forum Members

ARF has total 27 member states
ASEAN Countries (10) |
Dialogue Partners (10) |
Other nations (7) |
- Brunei Darussalam
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Myanmar
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Vietnam
|
- Australia
- Canada
- China
- EU
- India
- Japan
- ROK
- New Zealand
- Russia
- United States
|
- Bangladesh
- DPRK
- Mongolia
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Timor Leste
- Sri Lanka
|
ARF process is three-tiered
Tier |
Activity |
1 |
- annual ARF meeting at the level of Ministers in July/August in the capital of the ASEAN Chair for the year.
- (ASEAN chair is rotated every year).
|
1.5 |
- Seminars of scholars and officials from member states acting in their personal capacity
|
2 |
- ARF Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM)
|
3 |
- Inter-Sessional Support Group (ISG) on CBMs and Preventive Diplomacy
- They hold annual meetings known as Annual inter-sessional meetings (ISMs)
|
Four Intercessional meetings of ISMs
- on counter-terrorism and trans-national crime (CTTC),
- maritime security,
- disaster relief
- non-proliferation and disarmament.
Vision Statement for ARF for 2020
- adopted at the 16th ARF Ministerial held in Phuket, Thailand
- Talks about two things
- ARF is a central pillar in the emerging regional security architecture.
- strengthening ARF’s role in raising awareness on security challenges and intensifying confidence building and cooperation
Hanoi Plan of Action (POA)
Contains policy guidance for how to implement that ^Vision 2020 involving concrete and practical actions in the fields of
- Disaster relief
- maritime security
- non-proliferation and disarmament
- counter-terrorism
- Peacekeeping.
India and ARF:
- member of the ARF since 1996.
- Our participation is consistent with our “Look East” policy, and development of closer links with the ASEAN as a full-dialogue partner.
- We’ve co-chaired ARF Inter-sessional Support Group (ARF-ISG) on CBMs and Preventive Diplomacy
- We’ve organized several seminars, workshops and training programmes for ARF Members. For example,
- UN Peacekeeping course @Delhi
- maritime security training course @Chennai
- Anti-piracy training @Mumbai by Coast Guard
- cyber security (don’t know @where).
Mock Questions for IAS Mains (GS Paper 2)
- What is Track 1 and Track 2 diplomacy?
- Write a brief note on ARF
- Discuss the relations between India and ARF
- What is Hanoi Action Plan? (2m)
Mock Interview Questions:
- What do you understand by Confidence Building Measures /CBM (Interview)
- Can you cite any examples of Track-2 diplomacy between Indo-Pak and Indo-China? (Interview)
im confident of going inn for my second mains in oct 2012.
appeared fr interview earliar. missed the bus coz of paper 2
please keep these IR stuff coming along with other paper 2 articles .
thank you :)
sir aap cheetah hain !!
Very good article for Basics…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations
For the map
1. SAARC
2. BIMSTEC
3.MGC
India is a part of these three only. In others India may be dialog partner/observer/potential partner but not a true member (Interview POV)
4. SCO
RCEP=ASEAN+6
EAS=ASEAN+6+2