UN General Assembly
1972

164. Thus, ASEAN is proof that the habit of co-operation can be fruitfully developed, even among countries with diverse traditional backgrounds. Less than six years after its founding, ASEAN is beginning to develop a personality of its own and to exert a modest force in Asian affairs. A few years ago the Foreign Ministers of the ASEAN countries agreed to try to help in mediating the Cambodian conflict. This year the same Foreign Ministers, in a move expressive of their deep concern over the war in Viet-Nam, proposed a formula which the parties to the conflict could consider as a means of breaking the impasse in current negotiations. We shall do so again, taking into account the objections voiced by the parties principally concerned, in the belief that the Asian voice is not irrelevant in a war being fought on Asian soil which causes a grievous toll in Asian lives.