EU SAYS RELATIONSHIP WITH ASEAN SHIFTS INTO NEW GEAR

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) says Europe's
long-standing relationship with South East Asia is shifting into new gear this
year.

According to EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security
Policy (CFSP) Javier Solana, the EU "reached a milestone in our relations this
year with the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) in Phnom Penh in
May on the accession of the European Union and its member states to the Asean
Treaty on Amity and Cooperation".

"Our mutual engagement is growing still closer and deeper, particularly in
the area of building peace, security and cooperation around the globe," he said
in an email to Bernama as he proceeded to Phuket in Thailand to attend the Asean
Regional Forum (ARF).

Along with the 16th ARF, Phuket is also hosting the 42nd Asean Ministerial
Meeting (AMM) and the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC) from July 17 to 23.

Emphasising that Asean was a vital partner for the EU, Solana said: "The EU
and its Asian partners have a common resolve to tackle today's regional and
global threats together and a common interest in developing a system of regional
integration and global governance.

"It is with this shared vision that I am travelling to Phuket this week for
meetings with the Asean partners and the Asean Regional Forum. We see Asean as
the key driving force fostering regional integration in Asia.

"It has emerged as a serious regional player. We have followed with great
interest as it has developed into a permanent regional organisation, inspired,
at least in part, we believe, by our own example of successful integration in
Europe," he said.

Solana said the EU welcomed Asean's historic adoption last December of a new
charter creating a legal framework for further integration and "we believe that
the ambitious roadmap for an Asean Community will be an important factor in
helping to bring about lasting peace, stability, shared prosperity and respect
for human rights in the region".

"The EU is proud to be in the ARF, which is the only regional forum in Asia
devoted solely to security issues. We are stepping up our involvement with ARF,
which has contributed to peace and security in Asia over the past 15 years,
because we regard it as an essential venue for dialogue.

"The need for Europe and Asia to discuss global strategies is all the
greater this year, given the multiple crises currently facing the world: food,
fuel, flu and financial - the four Fs, as United Nations secretary-general Ban
Ki-moon said recently," he said.

Solana said the EU had vital interests in the region.

"Its trade with East Asia has overtaken its trade with the United States and
it is Asean's biggest trading partner.

"That is why Thursday's (July 23) ARF meeting in Phuket is so important to
us. The ARF is a central pillar in the evolving regional security architecture
and with our ARF partners, now and in the future, and we will share our vision
of working together, as part of a global, rules-based multilateral system, to
promote peace and stability through confidence-building action and preventive
diplomacy," he said.

He said the EU's philosophy was that threats must be prevented early on from
becoming sources of conflict.

"Developed and developing countries alike are coping with the dangers and
insecurities brought in the wake of globalisation, along with the new-found
opportunities it also creates for us all," Solana said.

He said the EU was looking forward to discussing both traditional and new
security threats at the ARF meeting, ranging from terrorist attacks to the need
to reduce nuclear arsenals and prevent more countries from acquiring nuclear
weapons, to natural disasters likely to be caused by climate change.

"We should look at oil and gas supplies, piracy and failed states. None of
these threats stop at national borders and all of them are as relevant to our
Asian partners as they are to the EU.

"The EU is making its mark in helping to create a more secure world and we
can and must work closely with Asia on this. We will continue to support
concrete, action-oriented cooperation focused not only on confidence-building
measures but also on conflict resolution," he said.

Solana said that over the past decade, under the European Security and
Defence Policy (ESDP), "we have deployed more than 20 operations in response to
crises in Europe, Africa and Asia".

"These range from the successful post-tsunami peace-building mission in
Aceh, Indonesia, where we worked closely and very successfully with
participating Asean nations, to our first-ever naval task force, Operation EU
NAVFOR Atalanta, fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia," he said.


Solana said the EU currently had another mission in Asia - training and
mentoring the Afghan police.

He said lasting solutions to conflict must bind together all regional
players with a common stake in peace.

"This is what the European project is about and this is what our deepening
relationship with Asia is about. We firmly believe that strong ties between
different regional groups in the world are crucial for global peace and
security. We are committed to stepping up our engagement in Asia's regional
integration processes, including the East Asia Summit.

"We share with you a vision that by 2020 the Asia-Pacific region will be an
area of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity based on a
foundation of mutual trust, where preventive diplomacy pursues the ultimate goal
of conflict resolution," he said.

Solana added that it was vital, especially for the ARF, to make this vision
a political reality.

-- BERNAMA