ZOPFAN

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ZOPFAN is an acronym and means: "Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality"

The ZOPFAN declaration was drawn up by the foreign ministers of the ASEAN member states at an extraordinary meeting on November 26th and 27th, 1971 in Kuala Lumpur . The declaration claims to establish Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines , Singapore and Thailand (the then ASEAN member states) as a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality. In particular, interference by other powers (mainly the USA and the Soviet Union ) is rejected. In addition, the declaration should formulate the claim for a deeper cooperation within ASEAN, which should lead to strengthening relations and solidarity among the member states.

The ZOPFAN declaration was a reaction to several political events in the region, which had to make the ASEAN states aware that their political influence in the region was very limited:

  • the accelerated military withdrawal of Great Britain from Malaysia and Singapore, which had to lead to a rethinking of the security strategies of the two countries
  • the Nixon Doctrine (also: Guam Doctrine), see there
  • the Soviet Union's proposal for a collective security alliance in Southeast Asia
  • the beginning of the rise of China after the Cultural Revolution
  • the intensification of the Sino-Soviet conflict
  • the increasing relevance of Japanese economic power
  • the spread of the Vietnam War to Laos and Cambodia

The declaration must be understood as a compromise that reduces the Malaysian position of neutralization (and thus the ASEAN movement towards the non-aligned movement ) and the reservations of the other ASEAN states towards this step to the lowest common denominator. The concerns about the step proposed by Malaysia arose (as for example in Indonesia) from the fear that the complete defection from the two great powers, the USA and the Soviet Union, would increase Chinese influence in the region.