(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Jan 21 (KUNA) -- The 28-member European Union and the 10-member Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed Monday to upgrade their ties to strategic relationship following the 22nd EU-ASEAN ministerial meeting in Brussels.
"I an pleased to say today that we agreed in principle to upgrade our relations to a strategic partnership between the EU and ASEAN," EU High Representative Federica Mogherini told a press conference after the ministerial meeting this evening.
She said that the "two most advanced and most successful regional integration processes in the world, ASEAN and the EU, stand firmly behind multilateralism and a rule-based global order." On his part, Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, as ASEAN coordinator for EU relations, told the joint press conference that "we represent two of the most successful regional organisations in the world. We share values and common goals.
"As we take our partnership to a greater height, we will continue to explore new areas in which we can cooperate and learn from each other, such as cyber security, maritime security, connectivity and climate change," he said.
The two sides also discussed cooperation on regional and international issues issue like the situation of Rohingya in Myanamr, the Iran nuclear deal, Korea, and the fight against terrorism.
Referring to the situation in the Rakhine state in Myanamr, Mogherini said the EU in the meeting stressed the importance of finding a comprehensive and durable solution and urged the implementation of the 2017 Myanmar-Bangladesh agreement on the return of Rohingya refugees.
She noted that the EU and ASEAN have cooperated on the Middle East issues constantly.
"I have updated the ministers on our work to have a full and effective implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. This was a point we discussed among us," said Mogherini in reply to a question on the issue by the Kuwait news agency, KUNA.
In a joint statement, the two regional blocs expressed "deep concern about the systematic impact of protectionist measures that are incompatible with the WTO rule and that put the multilateral trading system at risk." The 10 ASEAN member states are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. (end) nk.bs
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