Launch of negotiations for EU-Thailand and EU-Singapore ’Partnership and Cooperation Agreements’
European Commission
Launch of Negotiations for Partnership and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs) between the EU-Thailand and between the EU-Singapore
Press Release - Hanoï 8/10/04
On the occasion of the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting in Hanoi, Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker, incoming President of the European Council, President Romano Prodi of the European Commission, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of the Kingdom of Thailand, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of the Republic of Singapore confirmed their intent to launch official negotiations for the conclusion of bilateral Partnership and Co-operation Agreements between EU and Thailand and between EU and Singapore.
They stressed that the launching of the negotiations between EU-Thailand and EU-Singapore grew out of the common desire by the parties concerned to enhance further their traditionally close relationship. Their intention is very much in line with the EU’s current initiative for a New Partnership with Southeast Asian countries, aiming at reinvigorating relations with countries in Southeast Asia, notably through bilateral agreements. These agreements offer a framework for enhanced cooperation and dialogue in a wide range of policy areas such as trade and investment, education and culture, information society, science and technology, energy, transport, environment, cooperation in developing neighbouring countries and cooperation in regional/international organizations and fora, etc.
They further emphasized that these agreements will not only help underpin the relations between EU and Southeast Asia as a whole, but will also serve to complement the ongoing regional dialogues between the European Commission and ASEAN side in various policy sectors. While boding well for the strengthening of EU-ASEAN relations, the deepening of understanding and the intensification of existing cooperation will facilitate the possible negotiation and implementation of an EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement following the successful conclusion of the current round of multilateral trade negotiations.
They also believed that the conclusion of agreements between EU-Thailand, EU-Singapore could set the stage for possible future conclusion of similar agreements between other Southeast Asian countries and the EU.
