EU’s Strategic Autonomy and ASEAN’s Centrality – Pathways towards EU-ASEAN partnership with a strategic purpose. EU Centre Policy Brief

2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 40 years of the dialogue partnership between ASEAN and the European Union (EU). This longstanding partnership has its trials and tribulations. While economic ties between the two blocs have progressed steadily and diplomatic and political relations have broadened, EU-ASEAN cooperation has not reached its full potential and has plenty of room for growth. In May 2015, the EU issued a Joint Communication on its relations with ASEAN entitled “The EU and ASEAN: A partnership with a strategic purpose”. In this Communication, the EU acknowledged that “it has a strategic interest in strengthening its relationship with ASEAN because ASEAN combines high rates of economic growth as well as economic dynamism, and that it is also at the heart of the efforts to build a more robust regional security order in the wider Asia Pacific.