Several foreign ministers gathered in an Asian capital to negotiate an end to regional turmoil. One of the countries represented at the meeting brokered an agreement to end hostilities between the others.

This could be the 2023 Beijing agreement to normalize relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. But it could also be Bangkok in 1967, when Thailand’s foreign minister helped forge an agreement to end hostilities between Indonesia and Malaysia. It was at this meeting that the concept for one of the world’s most successful regional organizations was born: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

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