Forging closer co-operation with South East Asia
The Association for South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established to foster economic growth, social progress and cultural development, while promoting regional peace and stability. The European Union is committed to cultivating closer links with the association and recently earmarked €40 million to support its activities.
ASEAN is made up of ten nations: Brunei Darussalam, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2003, the association’s leaders resolved to establish a community based on three pillars: security, the economy and socio-cultural issues.
This desire for greater co-operation is supported by the ASEAN Vision 2020, which calls for member nations to develop an outward-looking partnership forged through peace, stability and prosperity. The aim is to encourage dynamic regional development and to produce a community of caring societies.
EU support
The EU’s objectives for co-operation with ASEAN aim to contribute to deeper economic integration between the association’s member states, and to stimulate economic growth and sustainable development in the South East Asia region.
The EU sought to revitalise co-operation in 2003 with the publication of A New Partnership for South-East Asia 
, which provided a strategic approach for relations between the two regions including six priority areas for action:
- Supporting regional stability and the fight against terrorism.
- Promoting human rights, democratic principles and good governance.
- Mainstreaming justice and home affairs issues.
- Injecting a new dynamism into regional trade and investment relations.
- Continuing to support the development of less-prosperous countries.
- Intensifying dialogue and co-operation in specific policy areas.
In 2007, the Commission adopted its Strategy Document for EU-Asia Co-operation [77 KB] 
(2007-2013). The EU’s Multi-annual Indicative Programme [57 KB] has earmarked €40 million to be spent on activities related to EU-ASEAN co-operation from 2007 to 2010. The strategy sets out three priority areas for co-operation:
- Regional capacity-building and region-to-region dialogue
This involves supporting the ASEAN Secretariat and capacity-building within ASEAN institutions, along with establishing inter-regional dialogue for co-operation on: trade facilitation, transport and logistics, environment, security and justice, energy, customs, taxation, investment, services liberalisation, statistics, technical standards and regulations. Time is also likely to be spent on improving sanitary and phytosanitary standards, as well as on issues relating to research, mutual recognition of qualifications, civil aviation and intellectual property rights.
- Statistical capacity building
Regional convergence within ASEAN and moves towards an ASEAN free trade area will benefit from the production of more accurate and reliable statistics which, in turn, will help in the formulation and evaluation of regional integration policies on trade, foreign direct investment, health and education.
- Immigration and border management
Co-operation covers areas related to governance and institutional reform selected at the request of the partners, including tackling illegal trafficking and corruption. As foreseen in the Development Co-operation Instrument , the activities mainly aim at reducing the production, consumption and trafficking of drugs, while paying due regard to other trafficking issues.