REGIONAL COOPERATION: SOUTHEAST ASIAN EXPERIENCE

This article deals with the concept of regional cooperation in Southeast Asia. The "habits of consultation", "principles of restraint", "methods of communication", and the tradition of tolerance among ASEAN members have solved differences, harmonized diverging interests and managed conflicts among them. This stable environment for conflict resolution has been achieved through bilateral diplomatic channels. Despite its achievements, the community building in Southeast Asia demands perhaps greater efforts than elsewhere. In addition, the rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization has forced all ASEAN countries to confront the social issues of poverty, regional and intra-country disparities in income and environmental degradation. The collective environmental security will remain a challenge, at least for the foreseeable future, for Southeast Asian countries. The article also examines the options for Pakistan. Southeast Asia-Pakistan trade and economic relations are not promising, their cultural interaction is also not well known. In order to improve the people-to-people contact, the relationship between the civil societies of Southeast Asian countries and Pakistan needs to be strengthened.