EU-ASEAN meeting to chart out road map for deepening ties
Islamic Republic News Agency
EU-ASEAN meeting to chart out road map for deepening ties
By Saeid Najar Nobari
Berlin, March 12, IRNA
This week’s 16th meeting between the foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to focus on drafting a road map for deepening political and economic relations, a leading German official announced.
German deputy foreign minister, Guenter Gloser said talks in the southern city of Nuremberg on Wednesday will center on working out a road map for intensifying ties in all spheres, especially on security and trade cooperation.
Some 40 ministerial delegations from the EU member states and the 10 members of the ASEAN association will attend a two-day meeting, marking the 30th anniversary of EU-ASEAN relations.
Co-chaired by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong, talks will also be dominated by a planned free trade accord, climate protection and promoting regional stability and security.
A recent example of such cooperation was the EU’s successful joint peacekeeping mission in the conflict-stricken Indonesian province of Aceh in 2005-6.
ASEAN brings together the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Cambodia.
Europe hopes to play a more significant role in tackling some of Asia’s security concerns, notably North Korea and Myanmar.
The EU is also due to declare its intent of joining the so-called’ Treaty of Amity and Cooperation’ (TAC) which renounces the use of force and calls for greater economic and political cooperation.
TAC has already been signed several nations, among them China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Another point on the ASEAN-EU agenda are possible negotiations on a major comprehensive free trade agreement, according to German officials.
ASEAN and EU ministers have long floated the idea of creating a trade deal between the two regions.
A study by a ’vision group’ set up by the two sides found that such an agreement would be beneficial to both sides, stimulating the economy of ASEAN members by another 2 percentage points of gross domestic product by 2020.
The vision group proposed that any agreement should include a comprehensive package covering trade, services and investment.
ASEAN bought 44.9 billion euros of goods from the EU in 2005, and sold 70.5 billion euros of products, according to EU data.
Most of the goods — both ways — were telecommunications and office equipment.
Taken as a whole, EU trade with ASEAN was about equal to its trade with Japan, its No. 5 trading partner.
European companies have been aggressively tapping into ASEAN’s market of more than half a billion people.
The EU buys 15 percent of Asean exports, making it Asean’s second-largest market after the US.
Negotiations over a free trade deal have partly faltered over Myanmar’s ASEAN membership.
The political situation in Burma is the key obstacle in the European Union’s desire to start negotiations for a free trade accord with ASEAN, according to EU trade envoy Jen-Jacques Bouflet.
"We feel it is the main issue that we have to consider as we decide whether to proceed on free-trade association negotiations with Asean," he said.
The Burmese issue has in the past emerged as a thorny one during meetings between ASEAN and EU ministers.
While EU officials tend to favour adopting strong measures to force the military junta to move towards political reform and the release of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, Asean members tend to prefer a more lenient approach with their neighbor.
Bouflet stressed also that the wide difference in economic performance among ASEAN countries was another difficulty for the prospective FTA talks.
Meanwhile, the EU has also adopted a critical position towards another ASEAN state, Thailand, in the wake of the September 2006 military coup.
Brussels has also been pushing ASEAN for lowering tariffs and easing rules on trade and investments.
Formed in 1967, ASEAN has a combined gross domestic product of 800 billion US dollars and a total trade volume exceeding one trillion American dollars.
The last meeting of the EU-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting which takes place every two years, was held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on March 2005.
