The Association of South East Asian Nations was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok Thailand with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration by the five original member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand). On 8 January 1984 Brunei Darussalam was admitted as the sixth member. In July 1995 Việt Nam joined ASEAN as the seventh member; the People's Democratic Republic of Laos and Myanmar joined in July 1997 as the eighth and ninth member respectively, and Cambodia became ASEAN’s tenth member state in April 1999. The Bangkok Declaration sets out the objectives of the Association as follows: (i) to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint endeavours in the spirit of equality and partnership, in order to strengthen the foundation for a prosperous and peaceful community of South East Asian Nations; (ii) to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries of the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter; (iii) to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance on matters of common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative field; (iv) to provide assistance to each other in the form of training and research facilities in the educational, professional, technical and administrative spheres; (v) to collaborate more effectively for the greater utilisation of agriculture and industries, the expansion of trade, including the study of the problems of international commodity trade, the improvement of transportation and communications facilities and the raising of people’s living standards; (vi) to promote South East Asian studies; and (vii) to maintain close and beneficial co-operation with existing international and regional organisations with similar aims and purposes, and to explore all avenues for even closer co-operation among member states.