Page 24 - EU_ASEN Relations: Perspectives From Malaysia

Malaysia and the EU─ASEAN Political

Cooperation

by Patrick Ziegenhain

Introduction

The EU and ASEAN are the two most important regional organisations

worldwide, working together in many ways. This chapter describes the various
dimensions of political and security cooperation of the ASEAN-EU Plan of

Action (2018–2022) before discussing the most urgent challenges currently

faced. One aspect of this overview chapter is looking at Malaysia’s specific
role in the political dialogue between ASEAN and the EU, and the explanation

of the most important aspects of the recently signed EU-Malaysia Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement.

Political Cooperation between the EU and ASEAN

As highlighted in the introduction of this booklet, the cooperation between the
EU and ASEAN has gone through its ups and downs since 1972 when its

informal dialogue first took place. At the initial stage and throughout the first

two decades, the dialogue was highly asymmetrical and the main focus was on
trade and economic issues. Until now both regional organisations place strong

emphasis on the economic aspects, but in the 2000s, also agreed to broaden the

dialogue to other areas of interaction to include cooperation on political and
security matters.

Important milestones in this regard were the Nuremberg Declaration on an EU-

ASEAN Enhanced Partnership, adopted in March 2007, which sets out the
long-term vision and commitment of both sides. In 2012, the EU became the

first regional organisation to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in

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