Page 30 - EU_ASEN Relations: Perspectives From Malaysia

the situation. Despite more than 35 years of dialogue and cooperation,

Singapore-based scholar Lay Hwee Yeo wrote in a critical manner that
“ASEAN-EU ties continued to be low key, fraught with challenges and some

say even benign neglect” (Lay Hwee Yeo, 2010).

Nevertheless, this relationship should not be underestimated because the

regular inter-regional (EU-ASEAN) and trans-regional (ASEM) dialogues
have had at least some minor impact to build and deepen diplomatic ties. The

EU and ASEAN are working together in many fields, and this includes the

political dialogue, not just trade issues. The former EU ambassador to
Malaysia, Luc Vandebon, said in a speech at the AEI in 2014 that there is

“hardly any area of public policy without some degree of cooperation between
EU and ASEAN” (Vandebon, 2014).

At the same time, the political and security cooperation between ASEAN and
the EU continues to work quite smoothly. The cooperation takes place through

existing ASEAN-EU mechanisms such as the ASEAN-EU Ministerial
Meeting, the ASEAN-EU Senior Officials’ Meeting as well as through

dialogue and cooperation frameworks initiated by ASEAN such as the ASEAN

Regional Forum (ARF) and the Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs) 10+1.
Due to the frequent and regular meetings held, the ASEAN and EU

governments should be able to learn from each other and have a better

understanding of one another. Thus far, the dialogue on political and security
issues between the EU and ASEAN contributes to better coordination of the

activities of both regional organisations.

At an AEI conference on 4 August 2017, former ASEAN secretary Surin
Pitsuwan said that the exchange of scholars, students, and transfer of

technology were extremely important to connect and familiarise the two

regions with each other. He stated that “regional organisations such as EU and

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