BANGOK, Thailand -- The shadow of China and India looming over them is propelling ten much smaller nations of Southeast Asia to fast-track their heady dream of creating a European-style union -- a single market and, perhaps, some form of political cohesiveness. The prospects are tantalizingly attractive: a region of 530 million people stretching from the Bay of Bengal and the borders of India to the west Pacific, competing against the economic juggernauts of China and India for foreign investment and a place at the global decision-making dinner table, instead of being one of the dishes. But a new target date for union by 2015, five years earlier than previously envisaged, promises to be a tough deadline for ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
ASEAN Sets Ambitious 2015 Date for Union
