At summit, EU announces €10 billion package but frustrated Asean leaders seek trade pact
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Asean members want a free-trade deal with Europe rather than handouts, and do not want to be a pawn in great-power rivalries, its leaders said in Brussels on Wednesday.
After the first-ever leaders summit between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union concluded, the Asian side left complaining that talks concerning a bloc-to-bloc trade deal were no closer to being relaunched.
There is reluctance in Brussels about discussing such a pact with a group that includes a military junta in Myanmar. Instead, EU leaders said, it prefers to pursue “block by block” deals with individual Asean member states.
The EU did announce a €10 billion (US$10.7 billion) infrastructure package of grants and loans for Asean states, but Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister and outgoing Asean chair, warned Brussels that the group was not interested in “always receiving help” from Europe and preferred a trade deal.
“Asean is not always waiting for help from the EU, but [we] need to see the complementarity of the economies of the two regions,” he said. Concerning Myanmar, he said “politics should not hinder” EU-Asean progress.
“It’s true that European countries are more advanced, but Asean is not just a place to receive assistance … Asean and Europe [should] agree to have a free-trade agreement.”
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr warned that the region – often described as a “swing state” in the US-China rivalry – was not happy being caught in the geopolitical crossfire.