Asia Cooperation Dialogue

The idea of an Asia Cooperation Dialogue was raised at the First International Conference of Asian Political Parties (held in Manila between 17 and 20 September 2000) by Surakiart Sathirathai, then deputy leader of the now defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, on behalf of his party leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, then Prime Minister of Thailand. It was suggested that Asia as a continent should have its own forum to discuss Asia-wide cooperation. Afterwards, the idea of the ACD was formally put forward during the 34th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Hanoi, 23–24 July 2001 and at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Phuket, 20–21 February 2002.

Ministerial meetings

Meeting	Location	Date(s)
1st	Cha-am	18–19 June 2002
2nd	Chiang Mai	21–22 June 2003
3rd	Qingdao	21–22 June 2004
4th	Islamabad	4–6 April 2005
5th	Doha	23–24 May 2006
6th	Seoul	5–6 June 2007
7th	Astana	16–17 October 2008
8th[4]	Colombo	15–16 October 2009
9th	Tehran	8–9 November 2010
10th	Kuwait City	10–11 October 2012
11th[5]	Dushanbe	29 March 2013
12th[6]	Manama	26 November 2013
13th[7]	Riyadh	25 November 2014
14th[8]	Bangkok	9–10 March 2016
15th[9]	Abu Dhabi	16–17 January 2017
16th[10]	Doha	30 April 2019
17th	Ankara	21 January 2021

Summits

Summit	Location	Dates
1st	Kuwait City	15–17 October 2012
2nd	Bangkok	8–10 October 2016
3rd	Doha	2023[11]

The ACD was founded by 18 members. Since May 2019, the organization consists of 35 states^[12] as listed below (including all current members of the ASEAN and the GCC). Overlapping regional organization membership in italics.

Name	Accession date	Regional organization
Afghanistan	17 October 2012	SAARC, ECO
Bahrain	18 June 2002	GCC, AL
Bangladesh	18 June 2002	SAARC, BIMSTEC
Bhutan [t 1]	27 September 2004	SAARC, BIMSTEC
Brunei	18 June 2002	ASEAN
Cambodia	18 June 2002	ASEAN, MGC
China	18 June 2002	SCO
India	18 June 2002	SAARC, BIMSTEC, MGC, SCO
Indonesia	18 June 2002	ASEAN
Iran	21 June 2004	ECO
Japan	18 June 2002	—
Kazakhstan [t 2]	21 June 2003	CIS, ECO, SCO
South Korea	18 June 2002	—
Kuwait	21 June 2003	GCC, AL
Kyrgyzstan[13]	16 October 2008	CIS, ECO, SCO
Laos	18 June 2002	ASEAN, MGC
Malaysia	18 June 2002	ASEAN
Mongolia	21 June 2004	—
Myanmar	18 June 2002	ASEAN, BIMSTEC, MGC
Nepal	10 March 2016	SAARC, BIMSTEC
Oman	21 June 2003	GCC, AL
Pakistan	18 June 2002	SAARC, SCO, ECO
Philippines	18 June 2002	ASEAN
Palestine	1 May 2019	AL
Qatar	18 June 2002	GCC, AL
Russia [t 2]	4 April 2005	CIS, SCO
Saudi Arabia	4 April 2005	GCC, AL
Singapore	18 June 2002	ASEAN
Sri Lanka	21 June 2003	SAARC, BIMSTEC
Tajikistan	5 June 2006	CIS, ECO, SCO
Thailand	18 June 2002	ASEAN, BIMSTEC, MGC
Turkey[12][t 2]	26 September 2013	CoE,[t 3] ECO, NATO
United Arab Emirates	21 June 2004	GCC, AL
Uzbekistan	5 June 2006	CIS, ECO, SCO
Vietnam	18 June 2002	ASEAN, MGC

• Asia Council
• Asia–Europe Meeting
• Asian Clearing Union
• Asian Currency Unit
• Asian Development Bank
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
• Asian Parliamentary Assembly
• Belt and Road Initiative
• Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia
• Continental regional organizations
• Continental union
• East Asia Community
• Eurasian Economic Union
• International organization
• Pan-Asianism
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

• Why We Need an Asian Union
• European Policy Centre (2005-01): EU and Asian Integration Processes Compared
• The Guardian (2005-04-12): Hopes and Fears of an Asian Union
• International Herald Tribune (2005-06-18): Toward an 'Asian Union'?
• Asia Times (2005-10-01): Hedging China with FTAs
• International Herald Tribune (2005-12-16): An Asian Union? Not Yet
• Bangkok Post (2006-05-19): Towards a Truly Pan-Asian Community
• China Daily (2007-04-21): Asian Integration Still a Long Way Off
• Tehran Times (2010-03-14): Ahmadinejad Proposes Establishment of Asian Union

• Asia Cooperation Dialogue
• Asia Regional Integration Center
• Association for Asian Union
• Boao Forum for Asia
• New Asia Forum
• Society for Asian Integration