Three programs were launched to foster economic cooperation: the ASEAN Industrial Project (AIP), ASEAN Industrial Complementation (AIC), and the ASEAN Preferential Trade Agreement (APTA) (PTA). The ASEAN Member States have embraced the following essential principles in their dealings with one another, as stated in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) of 1976:
Respect for all nations' independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity;
Every state has the right to pursue its national interests free of foreign intervention, subversion, or coercion;
Non-interference in one another's private lives;
Peaceful resolution of differences or conflicts; renunciation of the threat or use of force.
They can work together effectively.