The Flag of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the ASEAN Flag is one of the official symbols of the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 Sovereign state, states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its ...

(ASEAN).Flags of the world
/ref> It consists of the official

emblem of ASEAN The Emblem of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the ASEAN Emblem is the emblem of ASEAN adopted in July 1997 together with the ASEAN flag. Although the current emblem was already in use for years, the official guidelines were adopt ...

on a blue background.

Design

Construction

Set upon a blue background, ten paddy or

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

stalks are drawn in the middle of a red circle with white circumference. The colours of the flag are specified as follows: The ratio of width to length of the flag is 2:3. The ASEAN Charter includes size specifications for usage of the flag:ASEAN Charter
/ref> * Table flag: 10 cm x 15 cm * Room flag: 100 cm x 150 cm * Car flag: 20 cm x 30 cm * Field flag: 200 cm x 300 cm

Symbolism

The official symbolism of the flag is detailed in the

ASEAN Charter The ASEAN Charter is a constituent instrument of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was adopted at the 13th ASEAN Summit in November 2007. The intention to draft the Charter had been formally proposed at the 11th ASEAN Sum ...

. The colours of the flag – blue, red, white, and yellow – represent the main colours of the

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and national symbol, symbolizes a given nation. It is Fly (flag), flown by the government of that nation, but can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanin ...

s of all ten ASEAN member states. Blue represents peace and stability, red represents courage and dynamism, white represents purity, and yellow represents prosperity. The stalks of rice represent the dream of ASEAN's Founding Fathers for an ASEAN comprising all the countries in Southeast Asia bound together in friendship and solidarity. The number of stalks symbolize

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

's ten members. The circle represents the unity of ASEAN.

History

ASEAN's first flag was similar to the current one – it had six paddy stalks representing the five founding members (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand), plus

Brunei Darussalam Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

(joined on 7 January 1984) and the word ASEAN written under the stalks. The background was

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

instead of

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

, the border of the circle along with the word ASEAN was

cyan Cyan () is the color between blue and green on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 500 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK c ...

, and the circle was bright

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

. The stalks themselves were golden

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

ish in colour.

References

External links

ASEAN
– Official description of the flag

– Description at FotW along with history {{Flags of International Organization

Flag A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and fla ...