LESSONS AND CONCLUSIONS To. CHARUMANI (Thailand) Post-graduate student of Saint Petersburg State University Keywords: integration, Asia-Pacific region, free trade area, economic cooperation, South-East Asia, open regionalism, "soft" law International economic integration can be considered a phenomenon against the background of a variety of forms and methods of integration. Thus, the theories of federalism and the interstate approach mainly study the political aspects and functionalism of integration. Communication theory and neo-functionalism assign a central role to socio-economic aspects in integration, while institutionalism analyzes the activities of supranational institutions in the integration process. A special place is occupied by economic integration theories that study the interaction of markets and economic operators. When analyzing integration processes, it is necessary to take into account the interdependence and interdependence of all spheres of interaction of political actors (from individuals to states and supranational organizations). After all, political processes cannot be separated from economic development, and vice versa, the processes occurring in the economies of states directly determine their policies. INTEGRATION FORMS AND MODELS Based on this, at the present stage, we can talk about the presence of various forms and models of integration, depending on the sphere in which it occurs. Forms of integration interactions in the economic sphere have their own specifics. There is a fairly consistent step-by-step classification of these forms: - Free Trade Area (FTA); - Customs Union; - Common market; - Economic Union; - Full economic integration. This scheme is most consistent with the stages of development of European economic integration; however, in the modern world, not all integration associations are developing according to this scenario. The most popular of these forms in the Asia-Pacific region (APR) is the free trade zone. This form is p ... Read more