Which of the following statements about Vietnam's ASEAN membership is correct?

The correct statement is that Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995, after the organisation's five original founding members. ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 through the Bangkok Declaration, signed by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, as recorded on ASEAN's own official history page. Vietnam, which was consumed by war and later post-war reconstruction and isolation through the late 1970s and 1980s, only normalised its regional diplomatic engagement in the 1990s as part of its broader Doi Moi economic reform and opening-up process; it formally acceded to ASEAN in July 1995, becoming the organisation's seventh member and the first from former Indochina. Option A is incorrect because Vietnam was not present at the 1967 founding; confusing it with a founding member is a very common error since Vietnam is now a prominent and economically significant ASEAN state. Option B is incorrect because Vietnam is very much an active ASEAN member today and has even chaired the organisation in recent years. Option C is incorrect because Thailand was a founding member in 1967, nearly three decades before Vietnam's 1995 accession, so Vietnam certainly did not join first. A common exam confusion is treating a country's current prominence within an organisation as proof it was a founding member; ASEAN's membership actually expanded in distinct waves, with Brunei joining in 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. Revision takeaway: memorise the five 1967 founders together (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore) as a fixed set, and separately note that Vietnam is a 1995 entrant, distinct from that founding group.