Page 8 - EU_ASEN Relations: Perspectives From Malaysia

member states’ ministers took place in 1972. At the time, there was a huge gap

between the economic development of the highly industrialized European
states and the poor Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, in the first years of

cooperation, talks tended to focus on market access for ASEAN’s primary
commodity export in Europe. In 1975, an ASEAN-EC Joint Study Group was

created not only to discuss trade matters but also to prepare further cooperation

in other fields. Three years later in 1978, ASEAN-EC relations were given
greater political significance with the inaugural ASEAN-EC Ministerial

Meeting (AEMM). Under the direction of the AEMM, the ASEAN-EC

Cooperation Agreement was formulated and signed during the second
ASEAN-EC Ministerial Meeting that was held in Kuala Lumpur in March

1980.

With this agreement, ASEAN was assigned a Most Favoured Nation (MFN)

status from the European Community. Subsequent to this, the EC and ASEAN
worked together on issues such as the international conflicts in Cambodia and

Afghanistan in the 1980s, and the two organisations were able to develop joint
statements on the two issues.

Until the 1990s, the ASEAN-EU relationship was seen very much as a donor-
recipient relationship. It was not considered a relationship between equals and

thus, ASEAN countries did not receive the due respect by the European Union

member states. Under political terms, ASEAN remained at the bottom of the
EU’s hierarchy of relations—lesser than even the African, Caribbean & Pacific

(ACP), and Latin American countries. The low priority was reflected in the
fact that the former British and French colonies represented in the ACP

countries received more favourable trade benefits (among others covered by
the Lomé Convention). In his speech at a conference of the Asia-Europe

Institute (AEI) on 4 August 2017, Kishore Mahbhubani highlighted the issue

of the EU being “arrogant, ignorant, and looking down on ASEAN” at the time.
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