50 years of partnership between ASEAN and Australia

In 2024 it is the 50th anniversary of the ASEAN–Australia partnership and to mark the occasion the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit will be held in Melbourne from 4 to 6 March.

In addition to a Leaders’ plenary and retreat, the three-day Summit will provide an opportunity to further strengthen partnerships through events centred around key focus areas – Business, Emerging Leaders, Climate and Clean Energy, and Maritime Cooperation.

Additionally, there will be the ASEAN-Australia Week, held from 1 to 8 March. The events will be a celebration of the relationship between Australia and ASEAN Member States, with a programme of academic, cultural, educational and business events. The events will focus on regional engagement and will showcase the depth and diversity of links between ASEAN and Australia.

As part of the ASEAN-Australia Week there are some cultural events, including:

Global Indigenous Runway: Ancestral Bloodlines (3 March): featuring designers and models from four ASEAN members states Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Laos, celebrating the connections between First Nations’ Culture and Peoples from Australia and the ASEAN region.
ASEAN Artistic Collaboration Showcase (4 March): a showcase featuring writer Alice Pung OAM, and a performance from Australian company Lucy Guerin Inc and Indonesia’s EkosDance, exploring the benefits of collaborating within the region and offering insights into the frameworks that exist to enter or initiate new creative collaborations.

ASEAN was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia joined in later years to make up today's 10 Member States of ASEAN. In 2015, ASEAN launched the ASEAN Community with the aim of ensuring Southeast Asia remain an integrated, prosperous and stable region. The ASEAN Community includes three pillars: the Political Security Community, Economic Community and Socio Cultural Community.

Australia became ASEAN's first Dialogue Partner in 1974 – a formal status conferred to countries to deepen relations – and a Comprehensive Strategic Partner of ASEAN in 2021.