júna 11, 2007
Source: The Jakarta Post
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EU, ASEAN weigh deeper political ties NUREMBERG, Germany (AP): The European Union opens two days of talks Wednesday with 10 Southeast Asian nations, part of a drive to improve relations long hobbled by discord over human rights and other sensitive political issues. EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian, or ASEAN, planned to endorse a statement calling for closer political ties and joint action in areas such as security, energy, environment protection and economic development, officials said. The 27-nation EU planned to encourage further regional integration in Southeast Asia, after the region's leaders agreed in January to forge a free-trade zone by 2015 - five years earlier than previously proposed. "Europe has led the way in exploring the possibilities and advantages of regional integration," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said before the meeting. "We applaud the initiatives that ASEAN is taking to bring the benefits of deeper regional cooperation to Southeast Asia," she said. "We will continue to do all we can to support ASEAN in this to help bring greater stability and prosperity to the region." Southeast Asian nations, in setting up the free-trade zone, would first include ASEAN's richer members, such as Singapore and Brunei, in the area by 2010, with others following later, according to agreements reached at a January summit in thePhilippines. Integrating the region economically is a huge undertaking, given the vast differences in economic development of ASEAN members - Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia - and the fact thatsuch integration requires Asian nations to shed some economic sovereignty. The EU also wants ASEAN nations to sign political cooperation agreements committing both sides to regular consultations on democracy, human rights, terrorism and other political issues. Indonesia is expected to be the first to sign such a deal this year. Others lagged behind or were considered unlikely to sign an agreement. (**) |
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