The Association of Southeast Asian Nations celebrated its 41st anniversary last week with a series of activities highlighting more than four decades of strong regional cooperation.

In Korea, the ASEAN Committee in Seoul, composed of member-nations` heads of missions, commemorated the occasion with a series of activities this month. On Aug. 8, a day after the official anniversary, a flag-raising ceremony and a reception took place at the residence of Laos Ambassador Soukthavone Keola, the current ACS chairman. Personnel and family members of ASEAN embassies and their partner Korean agencies will be holding friendly games - inclusing bowling, badminton, tennis and table tennis - on Aug. 23 and 24. For the bowling games, the venue will be the Namyoung Bowling Center near Samgakji station. In previous ASEAN bowling matches in 2002 and 2004, the Philippine Embassy won as group champions. This time around, officers and staff of the Southeast Asia Division of MOFAT and the soon-to-be launched ASEAN-ROK Center have been invited. The objective of the games is to foster community spirit and strengthen Southeast Asian ties. For more information, contact Philippines consul Juan Dayang at j.dayang@philembassy-seoul.com or at 011-9496-4285. With a combined population of more than 500 million and a land area of 4.48 million square kilometers, ASEAN aims to strengthen regional ties and enhance people-to-people exchanges through forward-looking projects and closer networks with regional partners. Founded in 1967 to promote political cooperation among stakeholders, ASEAN has expanded to include more member-countries and more areas of cooperation in diverse sectors such as trade, security and development. ASEAN member-states are comprised of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand (the five founding members), Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.