Germany to focus on EU-Asean ties
The European Union, under the rotating presidency of Germany, will broaden and intensify the union's engagement with Southeast Asia, Christoph Bruemmer, the German ambassador, announced yesterday.
One of the major activities in establishing closer institution contact is that Germany will also host the EU-Asean Ministerial Meeting on March 14-15 in Nuremberg, where all 10 foreign ministers from Asean will be invited, said Bruemmer. Although no document is expected to be signed at Nuremburg, there will be plenty of negotiations on the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and an action plan for greater EU-Asean corporations, said Friedrich Hamburger, Ambassador and Head of EU Delegation in Bangkok. The EU is also keen in developing a regional free-trade area with Asean, said Hamburger. However, the two regional blocs ill have to develop the political agreement in parallel. "It is most unlikely that we will conclude the free-trade agreement [FTA] without a political agreement because of its connection to anti-terrorism, human rights and the International Court of Justice, which are our concerns," said Hamburger. Hamburger declined to comment on how such a political agreement could be achieved with Burma also invited to the meeting, saying that it was just an opinion. Another important meeting scheduled during Germany's EU presidency is the Asem Summit in May, to be held Hamburg.
Sopaporn Kurz The Nation
|
