Celebrating 40 years of EU-ASEAN relations

In 2017, the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations celebrate 40 years of a close and fruitful partnership, characterised by shared goals of peace and prosperity, and relations based on trust, mutual respect, common interests and values.

In 1977, establishing relations between the two most advanced regional integration projects seemed natural. In spite of some challenges, the EU and ASEAN remain the two most advanced and successful examples of integration in the world. This makes us natural partners with a lot to learn from each other’s experiences.

In its six decades of history, the EU has laid the foundation for a unique model of regional integration, based on shared sovereignty and economic solidarity. Unlike the EU's internal construction, ASEAN strongly believes in the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs. Furthermore, informality and consensus are paramount to ASEAN's success.

To date, the EU is the world's second largest economy. With a population of more than 510 million inhabitants, it accounts for around 22% of the world's total GDP (as compared to 24% for the USA, 15% for China, 5.5% for Japan and 1.8% for Russia). With 10 member states, ASEAN has a combined population of 629 million inhabitants. As a bloc, it constitutes the third largest economy in Asia and is projected to become the 4^th largest economy in the world by 2050. With a rapidly growing middle-class, and favourable demographics, the region is attracting trade and investment on an unprecedented scale.

As a result of long-lasting economic relations, the EU is ASEAN’s second largest trade partner and ASEAN is the EU’s third, with bilateral trade in goods reaching 201.5 billion euros in 2015. In addition, the EU is the biggest investor in ASEAN economies with a total investment (FDI) inflow of 131.6 billion euros, equal to a quarter of the total FDI in the region.

In this context, the EU wishes to deepen its relations with ASEAN as it believes that ASEAN will play an important role in bringing to fruition a larger integrated market, enhancing its connectivity with the ASEAN Economic Community and with the rest of the world, which will contribute to prosperity and stability in Asia.

The EU is reaffirming its eagerness to achieve a region-to-region Free Trade Agreement (FTA) because it is perceived as an essential component of the regional development. This was confirmed during the 15th annual consultation meeting between the EU Trade Commissioner and the ASEAN Economic Ministers that took place in Manila on 10 March this year.

In recent years, the EU and ASEAN have agreed to develop a more rounded partnership, going beyond the traditional focus on economic issues. This followed ASEAN’s decisions to begin to tackle security issues such as maritime security, disaster management, transnational crime and counter-terrorism, biodiversity conservation and wildlife trafficking.

The EU has expanded its role as a security actor and provider, including through the Lisbon Treaty provisions enabling more integrated approaches to foreign policy. Since 2013, three rounds of EU-ASEAN High Level Dialogues on Maritime Security have taken place, with fourth one scheduled for October 2017 in Manila.

Another good example of EU-ASEAN cooperation is the setting up of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centre of Excellence Initiative with its regional secretariat for South-East Asia placed in the Presidential Palace in Manila. All ASEAN Member States are partners in this initiative, which provides a regional platform for tackling CBRN risks and is a key response to both European and ASEAN security and safety concerns.

Similarly, the EU and ASEAN are partnering to address environmental issues. The ASEAN region is home to key major ecosystems with a significant marine and terrestrial biodiversity, which constitutes 18 percent of all living species. The EU contributes to protect this endangered world heritage by supporting the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and by investing in the creation and the management of 38 ASEAN heritage parks in the region. 

The EU is also an active member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). In the ARF context, the EU has supported topics such as confidence building measures, preventive diplomacy, mediation, as well as fighting terrorism, cyber-crime and transnational crime. In 2017, the EU was the first ARF partner to put the issue of Trafficking in Persons on the ARF agenda.

Closer people-to-people contact is another core component of a deeper EU-ASEAN partnership. They cover both dialogue and cooperation on research and innovation, and exchanges of higher education students and researchers. Each year, around 250 ASEAN students received scholarships under the EU Erasmus Mundus program, which has now been succeeded by Erasmus+, and many scholarships are provided by EU Member States. Every year, more than 4,000 students travel from ASEAN to Europe on scholarships funded by the EU and its Member States.

As part of the effort to build a more mature and more political partnership, the EU is also keen to work with ASEAN to promote and protect international human rights standards. In this context, a key EU priority is the abolition of the death penalty. The EU therefore welcomed the creation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in 2009 and the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012. In October 2015, the EU and ASEAN held a first policy dialogue on Human Rights, when the AICHR visited Brussels.

The next milestone on the EU-ASEAN agenda will be the ARF Ministerial Meeting on 7 August in Manila in which EU High Representative/Vice President Federica Mogherini is due to participate. We look forward to this important visit, which will also provide an opportunity to celebrate 40 years of EU-ASEAN relations.

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(Franz Jessen is the Ambassador of the European Union.)