The Bali Declarationwas also a significant document

This analytical article concludes with a topical question about how Asean will respond to Russia’s and China’s strategic thinking during their summits in May and September respectively, and how it will be reflected in their resulting documents.
There is no doubt that the document officially entitled “Joint Statement of the Asean-US Special Leaders’ Summit: Sunnylands Declaration” is an exemplary result of successful multilateral diplomacy and it will be the first source of inspiration for the two forthcoming Asean summits with Russia and China.
In addition, another more elaborated diplomatic document adopted in Bali, Indonesia, entitled “Declaration of the 6th East Asia Summit on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations,” dated November 19, 2011, may prove also to be well inspiring. By this document the 10 members of Asean, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the USA reiterated their commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (1976) and other recognised principles of international law. The Bali Declaration contains two fundamental principles not mentioned in the Sunnylands Declaration: promotion of good neighbourliness and non-interference in the internal affairs of another country.
By their very nature these two principles belong to the body of generally recognised principles of international law and are specifically stipulated in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which is a legally binding international instrument and a permanent source of inspiration for the conduct of all its current 30 parties.
Ioan Voicu