1954 SEATO Founded

SEATO meeting in 1966

At a meeting in Manila on September 2nd,1954 representatives of Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines,Thailand and Pakistan met with US Secretary of State Dulles. Six days later the SEATO was formed. The founding nations agreed that an attack on one would be considered an attack on all. In cases of internal subversion, signators agreed to consult.

India, Indonesia, Ceylon, and Burma refused to join. South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos could not sign, due to the terms of the Geneva accords, which had guaranteed their neutrality.