Thank you, dear Minister Erywan. Thank you for the excellent organisation of this Ministerial. Let me also commend Brunei for its excellent hospitality and leadership. I mean, today’s meeting, as well as yesterday’s evening, were spectacular.
In today’s global landscape, none of our countries can afford to stand alone. What is now happening in the Middle East makes this abundantly clear to everyone. Two months into the Iran war, diplomatic efforts have yet to produce a breakthrough. Higher energy prices hurt both Europe as well as Asia. Freedom of navigation must remain free, or it will set the dangerous precedence elsewhere in the world.
The European Union and ASEAN share a common interest in regional stability and the rules-based international order. Today’s discussion focused on how we can deepen our cooperation even further. Areas where this makes most sense are, for example, maritime security, counter terrorism, and cyber defense. We can do more together with full respect for ASEAN’s principles of neutrality and consensus. Through our Global Gateway strategy, the EU is strengthening the security dimension of our partnerships. Here in the region, this covers projects on coast guard training, critical and maritime infrastructure protection, as well as combatting transnational crimes such as online scams. We are also exploring closer cooperation with ASEAN navies in the Indo-Pacific.
But of course, the greatest foundation is our growing economic partnership. With around €40 billion in bilateral trade in 2024, ASEAN is the EU’s third largest trading partner outside Europe, and the EU ranks as ASEAN’s third largest partner globally. This has been enormously profitable for both of our regions.
Building on this, we are looking ahead to the EU-ASEAN 50th Anniversary Summit that is going to take place next year. The EU is moving forward with the negotiations for trade agreements with Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. And in the long-term, we should also aim for a region-to-region trade agreement.
Dear Minister Erywan, Brunei’s Vision 2035 and its ambition to build a digital, smart nation resonate strongly with the European Union’s own priorities. The EU can learn from your experience in energy efficiency, and my intention is to also work with Brunei towards relaunching negotiations on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between EU and Brunei. This will give us a stronger framework to work together, including on education and people-to-people exchanges.
Brunei is a valued partner to the European Union, and more broadly, this is also how we see ASEAN. The European Union is and will remain a reliable and predictable partner.
Thank you to all Foreign Ministers of ASEAN present today, that gave good engagements and also, especially to you Minister Erywan, for your leadership and generous hospitality.
Q&A
Q. Some ASEAN nations have stated interest in buying Russian oil. I wonder what does Europe think of this interest? Thank you.
Of course, there is an energy crisis right now in the world. And unfortunately, this energy crisis is benefiting Russia. Just let me remind you that the oil revenues are the revenues that Russia is using to fund this war. We have an interest that this war stops. And wars end when aggressors run out of money to finance them, and that is why it is in our interest that the revenues from the Russian oil are actually shrinking. And that is also our message to our partners everywhere in the world that seek stability. We want wars to end. We want peace and then we do not have these kind of problems. So, that is why we are advocating for diversifying resources and finding them elsewhere, not from Russia.
Q. This morning, and also this afternoon, HRVP has talked about how ASEAN and EU can be, or should be, the angle of stability facing this global instability. So, what are your opinion on this? And how can we achieve this? What are the challenges that we will face to be the anchor of stability, and how can we live in to be the anchor. Thank you.
Today we were discussing this extensively, and actually one thing that we all agreed is that what we share is the support for multilateralism and the world that is based on rules and that is actually granting the stability. But we see that the multilateralism and the international order is really under heavy strain right now, but we should use this time for the reforms, and we should use this time for actually really changing the international system so that it also reflects the world as it is, meaning all the countries that are existing in the world. So, what can we do together? On the UN level, we see many cooperation points, especially regarding maritime security, and maritime security as to freedom of navigation to be very strong on that. But also critical infrastructure that is undersea – the protection of that infrastructure. People-to-people contacts and education cooperation is also important to educate people in terms of having stability in both of our regions. But yes, more broadly, the discussions were about the overall world order and how we can join our forces because we share the same principles and we share the same values and we can rally other countries behind this. Because the ultimate goal is that there would not be any wars in the world.
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/media/video/I-287962