ASEAN has launched the ASEAN Community at the beginning of 2016 in what was only the latest signal of a convergence with the integration path pursued by the European Union. Analysing the progress made by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since 2003 on the road to building the Community-and what it has set for itself until 2025-it would appear that the association deserves little credit for developments in its sociocultural dimension, while the lack of a formal defence agreement hinders its political-security growth. Even in the most advanced ASEAN Economic Community the inability to reach an agreement over a custom union casts a long shadow on its aspirations of creating a single market and moving from mere liberalisation to economic integration. However, ASEAN’s ambitions for a rules-based system, while short of a European depth, still matters to the future of regionalism in Asia.