It was the first display of what would later be dubbed the "sports shirt diplomacy".
In 1967, five ministers from South East Asia spent a few days together at the secluded Thai beach resort of Bang Saen, where diplomacy played out on the golf course and friendships were forged over dinner, drinks and laughter.
On August 8, 1967, four days after those informal interactions began, the Association of South East Asian Nations was born.
The five ministers - Adam Malik of Indonesia, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, Narciso Ramos of the Philippines, S Rajaratnam of Singapore and Thanat Khoman of Thailand - signed the Asean Declaration.

The founding fathers of Asean, from left, Philippine foreign affairs secretary Narciso Ramos, Indonesian foreign minister Adam Malik, Thai foreign minister Thanat Khoman, Malaysian deputy prime minister Tun Abdul Razak and Singaporean foreign minister S Rajaratnam
Also known as the Bangkok Declaration, it paved the way for what is today the most important intergovernmental organisation of Asian nations.
Brunei joined the grouping 17 years later in 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995, and Laos and Myanmar two years after that. Cambodia was the last country to join Asean in 1999.
Fifty years on, Asean boasts an impressive collective GDP of US$2.5 trillion and was the sixth largest economy in the world in 2016, according to the World Bank.
While the bloc has brought peace and prosperity to the region, its unity cannot be taken for granted.
“The trends point towards a disjointed Asean as the members of the grouping give precedence to national interests rather than demonstrating a regional ego to secure the peace and prosperity in South East Asia,” Singaporean diplomat Ong Keng Yong, who was secretary general of Asean from 2003 to 2007, said.
The birth of Asean was nothing short of a miracle.
The bloc was born “out of fear rather than idealistic convictions about regionalism”, one of its founding fathers, Singapore’s S Rajaratnam, said years later.
The region was in the throes of turmoil in the 1960s, with the Vietnam War at its height, Indonesia emerging from a bloody military coup and Thailand under martial law.
The Philippines and Malaysia both staked claims over the state of Sabah, while Indonesia had just ended its “crush Malaysia” campaign. Singapore had also separated from Malaysia after two stormy years.
Beyond South East Asia, the Cold War was at its peak and China was on the cusp of the Cultural Revolution.
“It appeared then that both the East and West winds of communism had joined forces to sweep over South East Asia,” Rajaratnam said in the early 90s.
At that time, the five countries were fighting off communist-led insurgencies within their borders, and grappling with the power vacuum left by the departure of their colonial masters. Except for Thailand, all of South East Asia had been colonised by western countries before the Second World War.
“We do not want to be dictated from Europe, or from America, or from Moscow, or from Peking [China], or from anywhere else,” Thailand’s foreign minister Thanat Khoman, another founding member, said on the day of Asean’s formation.
'We want to be free, we do not want to be under the influence of anyone, large or small. We do not want to depend on the outside world, we want to depend on each and every one of us.'
While Asean has enjoyed relative peace and stability in the last 50 years, challenges remain.
Domestic problems can prevent member states from being fully committed to Asean, said Mr Hiebert.
Malaysia’s prime minister is shaking off corruption charges at home, Thailand’s military junta continues to tighten its grip on dissent three years after the coup, and the Philippine president is under criticism for the 8,000 people killed during his war on drugs - even as his country struggles to stem an Islamist insurgency in the south.
“You have almost every country except probably Vietnam and Singapore that is very inward-looking right now, solving domestic problems."
Citing another key threat to the unity of the bloc, Mr Ong said: “Some Asean member states do not appreciate the strategic value of Asean in maintaining regional autonomy and avoiding taking sides in big-power competition and rivalry in South East Asia.”
“They see their respective bilateral relations with individual big powers as more important than the abstract notion of Asean staying cohesive and united,” he said referring to China and the United States.
Rising tensions between Beijing and Washington will also be a challenge for Asean.
“It is inevitable that US-China tensions will rise in this region,” said Prof Mahbubani.
“If it rises, there’s a danger that the United States might use Asean against China, or that China might use Asean against the United States. In that process, Asean might get broken up,” he said.
'One message I have to Beijing is: please treat Asean as a delicate Ming [Chinese dynasty] vase. Don’t break it. That’s the biggest danger that Asean faces today.'
The contested claims in the South China Sea could also hurt relations among member states. It pits nations with competing claims - such as the Philippines and Vietnam - against those with no direct stakes in the dispute but are dependent on Beijing - such as Cambodia and Laos.
Cambodia has on several occasions blocked Asean consensus on strong wording against China in the dispute.
“One threat is the problem where Cambodia will do China’s bidding if it gets enough aid … where China gets Hun Sen [Cambodian prime minister] and Cambodia to do its bidding by giving them a whole chunk of foreign aid,” said Mr Hiebert.
“That really is a bit of a threat if one of the superpowers can do this,” he said.
Little is known about the fact that five very unlikely friends – born in five different countries, speaking different languages and from different faiths – were brought together on the golf course in 1967 during the humble beginnings of Asean.
In Bang Saen, less than 100 kilometres south-east of the Thai capital of Bangkok, they negotiated over the Asean declaration on the golf course, which they later came to describe fondly as "sports shirt diplomacy”.
While informal talks were held during golf games, they were far from easy, the Philippines’ foreign minister Narciso Ramos said. They “truly taxed the goodwill, the imagination, the patience and understanding of the five participating ministers”.
The background of the five men were as diverse as Asean itself.
Thailand’s foreign minister Thanat Khoman, was a Buddhist educated in France, who spoke English and French fluently. Filipino Narciso Ramos, a Christian, was a lawyer, journalist and politician educated in Manila.
Indonesia’s Adam Malik and his Malaysian counterpart Tun Abdul Razak were Muslims. Malik was born in Sumatra, Indonesia, spoke Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch fluently, while Razak was born in Pahang, Malaysia and educated in Singapore. He furthered his studies in London’s Lincoln Inn, where he met Singapore’s S Rajaratnam, a Hindu born in Sri Lanka but raised in Singapore.
"Each man brought into the deliberations a historical and political perspective that had no resemblance to that of any of the others,” according to an Asean publication to commemorate the bloc’s 30th anniversary.
"But with goodwill and good humour, as often as they huddled at the negotiating table, they finessed their way through their differences as they lined up their shots on the golf course and traded wisecracks on one another’s game, a style of deliberation which would eventually become the Asean ministerial tradition."
“Many Asean problems were resolved over golf games,” said Prof Mahbubani.
Playing golf helps people develop a camaraderie, and “as a result of that camaraderie, you get over all the disputes and differences that you have”.
Credits
Graphics: Ramon Peñas and Álvaro Sanmartí
Multimedia: Kevin Jeffers and Andrew Scott
Photo editor: Olive Obina
Photos: Agence France-Presse, Alamy, Getty