ASEAN–EU COOPERATION: PRESENT AND FUTURE Dang Minh Duc
Looking back at the history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), we can realise that, after gaining independence, many Southeast Asian nations had an intention to found a regional organisation for accelerating economic, scientific, technical, and cultural cooperation and minimising the impacts made by world and regional powers. ASEAN has since experienced ups and downs but finally showed its great vitality. The expansion of ASEAN covering entire Southeast Asia was marked by the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015, demonstrating its advantage and effectiveness. At present, ASEAN is a regional organisation consisting of ten member nations and covering more than 4.5 million km², with a population of more than 649.1 million people and a GDP of almost USD 3,000 million in 2018.1 The ASEAN Community was established not only for strengthening internal cooperation within the region but also for creating a solidarity bloc to cope with external challenges. Since dialogue relations were formalised between ASEAN and the European Union in July 1977, followed by the ASEAN–EEC Cooperation Agreement signed on 7 March 1980, the cooperation between ASEAN and the European Union has been highly prized by both regional organisations. The cooperation agreement between ASEAN and the European Union was set up on three major pillars: political and security cooperation, economic cooperation, and sociocultural cooperation. For ASEAN, there were three reasons for strengthening its cooperation with the European Union. Firstly, the European Union was the second-largest market for export from ASEAN at that time. Secondly, the European Union was a counterbalance to other major partners in the world, such as Japan, China, and the 140
REGIONAL ISSUES
United States. Finally, ASEAN was afraid that its position would be less significant if the European Union strengthened relations with other regions in the world. The European Union, for its part, paid great attention to ASEAN’s economic potential and was afraid of being excluded from Southeast Asia due to the dynamism of other powers in the region. Thus, the EU hoped the cooperation with ASEAN would “create a new dynamic in the EU–ASEAN relations” and it was “the very key point.”2 The cooperation between the two regions is run according to the following mechanism: ASEAN–EU Ministerial Meetings (AEMM) are convened biennially; ASEAN–EU Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) Meetings are held regularly; ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences are held annually, immediately after the ASEAN– EU Ministerial Meetings, in order to ratify the frameworks of dialogue and cooperation initiated by ASEAN; and, ASEAN–EU Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOM) are held for specialists from various sectors of the two regions. In addition, multilateral forums, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) 10+1 have also been held. Now, let us have a brief overview of the recent ASEAN–EU cooperation. POLITICAL COOPERATION At present, ASEAN is facing a number of challenges, both internal and external. There are still some disagreements between member nations, which may reduce the power of the bloc. One such example is Indonesia’s insistence on strengthening inclusive dialogue and dealing with regional issues within the framework of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), the East Asia Summit (EAS), and the Free and
