Enhancing EU-ASEAN ties (Originally published 26/03/12)

Finally, there’s hope for some much-needed progress in Europe’s 35-year old relationship with Southeast Asia.In the coming weeks, top officials from the EU and the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be meeting for the second ASEAN-EU Business Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to explore mutually interesting business and investment opportunities.An ambitious new action plan for ASEAN-EU relations is being negotiated and is expected to be unveiled when foreign ministers from both regions meet in Brunei in late-April.Also after years of playing hard to get, the EU’s top officials are beginning to take relations with ASEAN much more seriously.European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht will be attending the Business Summit in Cambodia. At last count, 17 EU foreign ministers (or their deputies) had signed up to meet their ASEAN counterparts in Brunei on April 27. EU foreign and security policy chief Catherine Ashton is also expected to participate.Showing up for ASEAN meetings is a good first step in building closer ties with the region. ASEAN policymakers have long complained about European ministers’ failure to turn up at EU-ASEAN gatherings.However, injecting real oomph into EU-ASEAN ties will require more than clocking up frequent flyer miles, vigorous handshakes and turning up for photo opportunities.Here are four urgent steps that both sides could take to enhance ties in the short-term.

• Restart talks on a region-to-region EU-ASEAN free trade agreement.
• Include a strong commitment to building a strategic relationship as part of the new EU-ASEAN action plan.
• Celebrate the 35th anniversary of EU-ASEAN ties at a summit.
• Appoint a special EU envoy responsible solely for relations with ASEAN.

Rapid changes in ASEAN, which turns 45 this year, are prompting the EU to take a fresh look at ties with the region.Significantly, the political reform under way in Myanmar has given a new luster to ASEAN. Military-ruled Myanmar’s entry into the organization in 1997 alienated the US and the EU as well as many other Western countries. However, now that Myanmar is opening up, the global race is on to forge stronger relations with both the country - and with ASEAN.Second, America’s much-publicised warm embrace of the Asia Pacific region – which includes plans for a Trans-Pacific Partnership on trade liberalization - has been a wake-up call to the EU.In the last few months, US officials have increased pressure on European governments to engage more strongly with ASEAN instead of focusing all their energy and efforts on China – and to a lesser degree on India.Specifically, Americans have been insisting that the EU must become an active participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum which is the prime platform for discussions on pan-Asian security issues.Third, as it struggles to overcome the economic crisis, the EU has come to rely heavily on exports to the ASEAN market of over 500 million people. ASEAN’s trade with the EU, in return, is helping to keep the region’s economy on track.The point is likely to be highlighted at the ASEAN-EU Business Summit in early April. The meeting, the second of its kind between economic policymakers and business leaders from the two regions, will focus on promoting trade and investment flows by reducing barriers and minimising constraints in trade and investment.

ASEAN TRADE WITH EU AND THE WORLD
EU27 with ASEAN
ASEAN with the world
% OF THE WORLD (excluding Intra-EU Trade)	2008	2009	2010
Imports	7.5%	7.5%	7.9%
Exports	8.3%	8.9%	9.2%
% OF TOTAL EXTRA-EU27	2009	2010	2011
Imports	5.6%	5.8%	5.5%
Exports	4.6%	4.5%	4.5%

In addition, a revival of negotiations on an EU-ASEAN free trade agreement, suspended in 2009 largely because of discord over Myanmar, would send a positive signal of EU interest and commitment to ASEAN.The EU is currently negotiating bilateral trade deals with Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam but has always maintained that these are “building blocks” in the search for an ASEAN-wide agreement.The new EU-ASEAN action plan for future cooperation, set to be released in Brunei at the end of April, represents an important step forward in expanding the content and scope of the two sides’ conversation so far.Key questions in the new plan include EU support for ASEAN’s efforts to upgrade connectivity across the region, help in implementing the ASEAN economic blueprint as well as cooperation on questions such as maritime security, cyber crime and counter-terrorism.However, the document could do with the injection of a stronger strategic element to make it more relevant to the changing nature of both Europe and ASEAN. The focus should be on improving the quality of the two sides’ inter-action rather than the quantity and volume of subjects discussed.Transforming EU-ASEAN relations into a strategic rather than purely trade and economic relationship would have the added advantage of giving a boost to Europe’s long struggle to become a member of the East Asia Summit. In addition to leading Asian nations, the EAS now also includes all of the EU’s current “strategic partners” including the US and Russia.An EU-ASEAN summit will probably not be easy to organise given leaders’ hectic schedules and conflicting agendas. The Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) set to be held in Laos in early November, however, offers an opportunity for convening a separate EU-ASEAN summit on the sidelines.The appointment of a special EU envoy for ASEAN would give a fillip to relations. By doing so, the EU would be following in the footsteps of Washington which sent David Lee Carden to Jakarta last year as the first resident US ambassador to ASEAN and Tokyo whose ambassador to ASEAN, Takio Yamada was appointed in 2010. The Australian, Chinese and South Korean “special” envoys for ASEAN operate out of their national capitals.The upcoming agenda of EU-ASEAN contacts and meetings is an encouraging sign of increased mutual interest. The momentum must be maintained, however, through rapid, visible-and-often-symbolic moves which signal the start of a new era of stronger EU-ASEAN engagement.

Time for a new EU-ASEAN strategy (Originally published 12/04/11)

As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rises along with the rest of Asia – in some cases notching up even stronger growth rates than Asia’s other booming economies – EU policymakers must step up engage with Asia’s oldest, but newly-re-energised, region-wide power.The EU has provided technical help and expertise to ASEAN’s regional integration efforts for many decades. Trade, aid and investment relations between the two sides are booming. With a combined GDP of around US$700 billion and a market of more than 550 million people, ASEAN offers great economic opportunities for European business.However, stronger business ties need to be buttressed by a supportive political environment. As such, Europeans must ensure their political and security relations keep pace with rapid changes in ASEAN and Southeast Asia’s growing global clout.If the EU is serious about restoring its credibility and influence in Asia, it must look beyond relations with China and India and develop a new strategy for engaging with a re-vitalised and vibrant ASEAN. Failure to do so could mean being excluded from an array of exciting new multilateral initiatives on issues like climate change, immigration and food security. A lack of political engagement could also act as a brake on the further development of EU-ASEAN economic ties.The 10-member ASEAN certainly has a new spring in its step. Growth rates are high, plans for ASEAN economic integration are picking up momentum, Timor Leste is set to become the newest member of the organisation and ASEAN is in the driver’s seat of an array of free trade and regional integration initiatives spanning the continent. G20 member Indonesia, as current chair of the organisation, is expected to give ASEAN an even stronger international profile.Significant challenges remain, however. The Jakarta-based ASEAN Secretariat remains weak, cash-strapped and under-staffed. The organisation’s member states include a disparate mix of emerging economic giants and some of the world’s poorest nations as well as democracies, monarchies and authoritarian governments. ASEAN experts warn of a “democratic recession” in the region, pointing out that even Indonesia, the world’s third biggest democracy after India and the United States, is “flawed”. Border disputes such as the recent flare-up between Cambodia and Thailand pose a serious challenge to ASEAN’s credentials as peace-maker.After a slow start, the pace of ASEAN regional integration is picking up. The six major ASEAN countries (comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand) have rebounded from the global economic crisis. The region stands determinedly at the centre of a host of ambitious pan-Asian trade and political networks, emerging as a strong third pillar in a region dominated by new economic powerhouses China and India.Expectations are high as regards Indonesia’s current chairmanship of the organisation. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has said he intends to focus on making progress toward the fulfilment of the ASEAN Community, establishing a “dynamic equilibrium” between ASEAN and the world’s major powers and increasing ASEAN’s role in the global community of nations.As ASEAN’s oldest Dialogue Partner, the EU has provided help and expertise to ASEAN’s regional integration efforts. The EU-ASEAN relationship has, however, turned lacklustre with time; today it is in dire need of a new lease of life.The first ever ASEAN-EU Business Summit to be held in Jakarta in early May could provide some of the much-needed impetus. Bilateral economic and trade agreements that the EU is seeking to negotiate with Singapore and Malaysia as well as the Philippines, Vietnam and possibly Brunei, will also help boost relations. But such initiatives are not enough. The EU needs to take a leaf from the US foreign policy book by taking its engagement with ASEAN to a higher level.Giving more impetus to EU-ASEAN relations will require a fresh look at the region, a focus on security and political issues of interest to ASEAN as well as initiatives such as visa-free travel for business leaders. Once the current EU review of strategic partnerships is complete, policymakers should consider making ASEAN a strategic partner, on a par with China and India.Interestingly, not unlike the EU, ASEAN is entangled in a debate on whether to widen or deepen its membership. ASEAN also faces a tough balancing act in its relationship with China. Traditionally ASEAN’s closest ally, the US under the Obama Administration has become an even stronger guarantor of the region’s security. Australia and Japan are drawing ever closer to ASEAN.As Europe struggles to rebuild its economy, it needs to trade and investment more in one of the world’s most dynamic regions. It cannot afford to remain on the periphery of ASEAN’s expanding ring of friends.