<P> On 15 December 2008, member states met in Jakarta to launch a charter, signed in November 2007, with the aim of moving closer to "an EU - style community". The charter turned ASEAN into a legal entity and aimed to create a single free - trade area for the region encompassing 500 million people . President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stated: "This is a momentous development when ASEAN is consolidating, integrating, and transforming itself into a community . It is achieved while ASEAN seeks a more vigorous role in Asian and global affairs at a time when the international system is experiencing a seismic shift". Referring to climate change and economic upheaval, he concluded: "Southeast Asia is no longer the bitterly divided, war - torn region it was in the 1960s and 1970s". </P> <P> The financial crisis of 2007--2008 was seen as a threat to the goals envisioned by the charter, and also set forth the idea of a proposed human rights body to be discussed at a future summit in February 2009 . This proposition caused controversy, as the body would not have the power to impose sanctions or punish countries which violated citizens' rights and would therefore be limited in effectiveness . The body was established later in 2009 as the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). In November 2012, the commission adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration . </P> <P> In 1984, Brunei became ASEAN's sixth member and on 28 July 1995, Vietnam joined as the seventh member . Laos and Myanmar (Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997 . Cambodia was to have joined at the same time as Laos and Burma, but its entry was delayed due to the country's internal political struggle . It later joined on 30 April 1999, following the stabilization of its government . </P> <P> ASEAN achieved greater cohesion in the mid-1970s following a change in balance of power after the end of the Vietnam War . The region's dynamic economic growth during the 1970s strengthened the organization, enabling ASEAN to adopt a unified response to Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979 . ASEAN's first summit meeting, held in Bali, Indonesia in 1976, resulted in an agreement on several industrial projects and the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, and a Declaration of Concord . The end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s allowed ASEAN countries to exercise greater political independence in the region, and in the 1990s ASEAN emerged as a leading voice on regional trade and security issues . </P>

When did myanmar became a member of asean