(Source: thcasean.org)
Seoul (VNA) – Over the past 53 years, ASEAN's foreign relations have been expanded towards deeper and more practicalorientations, helping to ensure peace, security, stability, cooperation anddevelopment for member countries as well as the whole region, and enhancing thegrouping’s position in the world, said Phan The Thang, Deputy Head of Information and Data Unit underthe ASEAN-Korea Centre.
In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency’s correspondentin Seoul, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Thang said that the relationship between ASEAN and partners has been carried out through a diversity of cooperationframeworks, including the ASEAN Plus One (a dialogue partner), ASEAN Plus Three(China, Japan and the RoK), East Asia Summit (EAS), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and ASEAN Defence Ministers’Meeting Plus (ADMM ).
So far, the association has set up partnerships with 16countries, many of which have become the grouping’s strategic partners,including the US, China, the EU, Russia, Japan, India, the RoK, Australia andNew Zealand, he noted.
Many cooperation programmes and plans have beenimplemented in various areas such as politics-security, economy, socio-culture, hesaid, adding that the number of countries showing their interest to form a partnershipwith the association has risen in recent years.
ASEAN has also expanded and deepened relations withinternational organisations, including the United Nations and the PacificAlliance. So far, 93 countries have sent their ambassadors to ASEAN.
According to Thang, as an initiative of ASEAN topromote trade among member countries and between the association and six majorpartners, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has been undernegotiations since 2013. After six years of negotiations, 15 member countries,with nearly one-third of the world's population and about one-third of the globalGDP, are striving to sign the deal in 2020.
These positive outcomes showed the support of partners for ASEAN’scentral role in the shaping regional architecture as well as the ASEANCommunity building, while showing their commitments in engaging in regionalmechanisms led by ASEAN, Thang said.
He commented that the outstanding development in ASEAN’s foreign relationshas helped the grouping’s economy thrive. Currently, ASEAN is the fifthbiggest economy in the world with GDP of over 3.1 trillion USD in 2019, and thethird biggest market with a population of over 654 million.
With the forecast growth of more than 5 percent per year, ASEAN isexpected to surpass Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world in2025, said Thang.
However, Thang also pointed out challenges facing the association,including the fourth Industrial Revolution, trade tensions among world powers,and imbalanced trade as well as climate change, environmental crisis andpopulation aging.
Regarding ASEAN-RoK relations, Thang held that the partnership isthriving in various fields. The two sides set up their dialogue relations in 1989 andupgraded their ties to a strategic partnership in 2010. Two-way trade rose 20 timesand people-to-people exchange increased 100 times, he noted.
Currently, the RoK is the fifth trade partner and investor of ASEAN,while ASEAN is the second biggest trade partner and the third investment destination of the RoK. ASEAN is also the most popular tourist destination of Korean travelers, while the RoK attracted a large number of labourers, students andtourists from ASEAN.
Korean President Moon Jae-in has initiated and promoted the “NewSouthern Policy” to deepen ties with ASEAN, while Korean leaders voicedsupport for ASEAN’s central role in the region and actively engaged inASEAN-led cooperation mechanisms.
Thang held that ASEAN hascountered many challenges in both security and economy. The COVID-19 pandemichas posed adverse impacts to the socio-economic situation in ASEAN member countriesas well as cooperation and exchange among the members and between ASEAN andpartners, he noted, stressing the need for the enhancement of the grouping’sself-reliance for economic recovery.
In terms of security, theassociation has also faced many complications, including tensions in the EastSea, the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East, he said.
The official underlined theneed for ASEAN and the RoK as well as other partners to improve their capacity todeal with the COVID-19 pandemic, minimising its impacts and promoting recovery andsustainable growth, and continuing efforts to finalise the RCEP as schedule.
Noting that ASEAN and the RoK are enjoying fruitful coordination inmany fields, Thang held that the cooperation is crucial for economicdevelopment in ASEAN member countries, while helping to maintain anenvironment of peace, security and stability in the region, including security, safety and freedom of aviation and navigation in theEast Sea. On the other hand, ASEAN is also working closely with the RoK topromote peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, Thang added./.
