Deputy PM Ekaterina Zaharieva Hails 40-Year Partnership between EU and ASEAN
21 January 2019 News
The 22th EU-ASEAN meeting of foreign ministers was held in Brussels today. The meeting was co-chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on behalf of the European Union and by Singapore Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan on behalf of ASEAN. Bulgaria was represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva.
The ministers adopted a joint declaration focusing on four priorities defining the goals of relations between the two regional blocs: the future relations, security, connectivity and trade and economy. The EU and ASEAN agree in principle to upgrade their relations to a level of strategic partnership as the details of the timeframe remain to be specified later.
Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva hailed the 40-year partnership between the EU and ASEAN. Achieving the sustainable development goals is an important aspect of this cooperation. The Minister recalled the historic moment in 2015 when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted.
“It is especially important to focus on children and education, and educate them about the sustainable way of living. My country is actively involved in this process,” said the top Bulgarian diplomat.
Bulgaria attaches a priority to relations with Southeast Asia countries considering their dynamic economic development and the role of ASEAN as the core and engine of integration processes in the Asia Pacific Region. ASEAN takes an important place in Bulgaria's foreign policy in terms of traditional bilateral relations with a number of countries and within the framework of enhanced EU-ASEAN partnership in the political, economic, social and cultural areas. As a member of the EU, Bulgaria is a regular participant in the EU-ASEAN dialogue on ministerial and other levels and makes a contribution to forming the common EU positions and reaching consensus between the two regional blocs.
ASEAN is a geopolitical and economic organizations of Southeast Asian countries which was set up in Bangkok in 1967 and includes ten countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand (founding members), Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. The EU and ASEAN established official relations in 1977 and EU-ASEAN foreign ministerial meetings have been held every two years since 1978 as a key format of political dialogue for reviewing the achieved results and making decisions for future goals and scope of cooperation. In 2007 relations were raised to the level of enhanced partnership. The EU is a key partner of ASEAN in the area of development and is its leading donor and principal external investor.
The main areas in the focus of attention of EU-ASEAN relations are: connectivity, regional integration and building the ASEAN Community by using the experience of the EU; the partnership and cooperation agreements (PCAs) between the EU and ASEAN countries; the free trade agreements between the EU and individual ASEAN member countries and resumption of talks on a region-to-region free trade agreement (FTA); finalization of the EU-ASEAN Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (CATA); maritime security; climate change and disaster management; combat against terrorism and transborder crime.
The region is the world’s fifth biggest economy and the third biggest economy in Asia with a total GDP of USD 2.8 trillion (2017), per-capita GDP of USD 4,308 (2017) and 5.3% growth of GDP (2017); and total volume of trade of USD 2.6 trillion (2017). The key trading partners are China, the EU, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Foreign direct investment stand at USD 135.6 billion (2017) and the lead foreign investor is the EU with 18.3% of the total FDI.
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