18th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting Co-Chair’s Statement

C. Work­ing togeth­er in ASEM

13. The Min­is­ters wel­comed the strate­gic impor­tance of the ASEM as a vehi­cle to pro­mote part­ner­ship for dia­logue and co-oper­a­tion between Asia and Europe. In this regard, the Min­is­ters reaf­firmed the mutu­al­ly rein­forc­ing roles of the ASEAN-EU Dia­logue and ASEM in main­tain­ing peace and sta­bil­i­ty as well as pro­mot­ing con­di­tions con­ducive to sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment for the ben­e­fit of their peo­ples. The Min­is­ters would con­tin­ue to work to ensure that both process­es achieved their max­i­mum poten­tial. They also not­ed that Bel­gium would host the 8th ASEM Sum­mit on 4–5 Octo­ber 2010 with the theme ‘Improv­ing the Qual­i­ty of Life: Achiev­ing greater well­be­ing and more dig­ni­ty for all cit­i­zens’, deep­en­ing and rein­forc­ing the ASEM dia­logue towards a clos­er part­ner­ship mode.

D. Join­ing efforts to address glob­al issues Alliance of Civ­i­liza­tions Initiative

14. Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their sup­port for the UN Alliance of Civil­i­sa­tion (AOC) ini­tia­tive and wel­comed the efforts made by the UN SG and the High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the AOC in pro­mot­ing mutu­al under­stand­ing and respect among civil­i­sa­tions. The adop­tion of the UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/64/14 on the AOC on 10 Novem­ber 2009 sup­ports a wide range of activ­i­ties and allows the ini­tia­tive to be more oper­a­tive. The Min­is­ters not­ed with sat­is­fac­tion the grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty of the Group of Friends of the AOC and the results of the two Glob­al Forums held in Madrid in 2008 and in Istan­bul in 2009. They wel­comed the next Glob­al Forum of the AOC in Brazil on 28–29 May 2010, as a new oppor­tu­ni­ty to fos­ter inclu­sive dia­logues and to devel­op syn­er­gies in work­ing in favour of com­mon val­ues and shared inter­ests among diverse cul­tures and communities.

15. The Min­is­ters expressed sup­port for the imple­men­ta­tion of the 64th UNGA Res­o­lu­tion (A/RES/64/81) “Pro­mot­ing Inter-reli­gious and Inter­cul­tur­al Dia­logue, Under­stand­ing and Coop­er­a­tion for Peace” and the inter­faith dia­logue ini­tia­tives in the UN. They took note of the recent adop­tion of the Mani­la Dec­la­ra­tion and Pro­gramme of Action on inter­faith dia­logue and coop­er­a­tion for peace and devel­op­ment at the Spe­cial Non-Aligned Move­ment Min­is­te­r­i­al Meeting. 

Non-pro­lif­er­a­tion

16. The Min­is­ters recalled that the Treaty on the Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is a cru­cial instru­ment for main­tain­ing and rein­forc­ing inter­na­tion­al peace, secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty. In this con­text, Min­is­ters wel­comed the efforts of the 2010 NPT Review Con­fer­ence to achieve a sub­stan­tive and bal­anced out­come on all three mutu­al­ly-rein­forc­ing pil­lars of the Treaty of non­pro­lif­er­a­tion, dis­ar­ma­ment and the peace­ful use of nuclear ener­gy. The Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to strength­en the inter­na­tion­al non-pro­lif­er­a­tion regime by pro­mot­ing the uni­ver­sal­i­sa­tion of all rel­e­vant Treaties and ful­fill­ing their oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tion­al dis­ar­ma­ment and non-pro­lif­er­a­tion treaties.

17. The Min­is­ters reit­er­at­ed that for the NPT goals to be achieved, all NPT State Par­ties must adhere to their oblig­a­tions under the NPT. They also called upon all States that are out­side of the NPT to accede to the Treaty as Non-nuclear Weapons States. ASEAN empha­sised its State­ment deliv­ered at the 2010 NPT Con­fer­ence on 4 May 2010. Min­is­ters expressed appre­ci­a­tion to the Philip­pines for its able and effec­tive Pres­i­den­cy of the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

18. The Min­is­ters called upon all States that have yet to sign and rat­i­fy the Com­pre­hen­sive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to do so, with­out delay and con­di­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly the nine remain­ing States list­ed in Annex II, with a view to secur­ing the Treaty’s ear­ly entry into force since the Treaty forms an essen­tial part of the nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment and non-pro­lif­er­a­tion regime. The Min­is­ters wel­comed the inten­tion of Indone­sia to advance the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the CTBT.

19. The Min­is­ters called upon all con­cerned States to begin with nego­ti­a­tions at the Con­fer­ence on Dis­ar­ma­ment on a Treaty ban­ning the pro­duc­tion of fis­sile mate­r­i­al for nuclear weapons or oth­er nuclear explo­sive devices.

20. The Min­is­ters recog­nised the impor­tance of the Treaty of South­east Asia Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in con­tribut­ing towards glob­al nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment and non­pro­lif­er­a­tion and peace and secu­ri­ty in the region. ASEAN encour­aged the ear­ly acces­sion by the Nuclear Weapons States to the Pro­to­col of the Treaty in accor­dance with the objec­tives and prin­ci­ples of the Treaty.

21. The Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to curb­ing ille­gal trade and exces­sive accu­mu­la­tion of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in accor­dance with the UN pro­gramme of action on SALW. The Min­is­ters under­lined the need for all Mem­ber States to ful­ly engage in the upcom­ing Bian­nu­al Meet­ing of States to dis­cuss the UN Pro­gramme of Action on SALW. The Min­is­ters agreed to pur­sue the efforts led by the Unit­ed Nations to estab­lish inter­na­tion­al stan­dards for the import, export and trans­fer of con­ven­tion­al arms. The EU expressed the belief that this should be achieved through an arms trade treaty. 

22. The Min­is­ters wel­comed the offer of the Lao PDR to host the First Meet­ing of State Par­ties to the Con­ven­tion on Clus­ter Muni­tions on 9 – 12 Novem­ber 2010 in Vien­tiane, Lao PDR fol­low­ing its entry into force.

Fight against terrorism

23. The Min­is­ters wel­comed efforts under­tak­en by ASEAN and EU Mem­ber States to pro­mote counter-ter­ror­ism co-oper­a­tion and enhance human secu­ri­ty, through col­lec­tive and bilat­er­al approach­es. They looked for­ward to the upcom­ing review of the UN Glob­al Counter-Ter­ror­ism Strat­e­gy. They tasked the rel­e­vant offi­cials to take the nec­es­sary steps to imple­ment the Joint Dec­la­ra­tion on Co-oper­a­tion to Com­bat Inter­na­tion­al Ter­ror­ism adopt­ed at the 14th ASEAN-EU Min­is­te­r­i­al Meet­ing in Brus­sels in Jan­u­ary 2003. They agreed to pur­sue the nego­ti­a­tions on the Com­pre­hen­sive Con­ven­tion on Inter­na­tion­al Ter­ror­ism. The Min­is­ters rec­og­nized that mea­sures tak­en to pre­vent and counter ter­ror­ism must be car­ried out in accor­dance with, and full respect for, inter­na­tion­al law as well as rel­e­vant domes­tic law. The Min­is­ters reit­er­at­ed their sup­port to strength­en coun­tert­er­ror­ism coop­er­a­tion among region­al counter ter­ror­ism insti­tu­tions and agen­cies such as the Jakar­ta Law Enforce­ment Cen­tre for Coop­er­a­tion (JCLEC), the South­east Asia Region­al Cen­tre for Counter Ter­ror­ism (SEARCCT) in Kuala Lumpur and the Inter­na­tion­al Law Enforce­ment Acad­e­my (ILEA) in Bangkok.

24. The Min­is­ters recog­nised the increas­ing inter­con­nec­tions between ter­ror­ism and transna­tion­al organ­ised crime and the need for a con­stant update on strate­gies, well-tar­get­ed objec­tives, bet­ter co-ordi­nat­ed mul­ti­lat­er­al efforts and law enforce­ment. Min­is­ters also agreed that the UN Con­ven­tion on Transna­tion­al Organ­ised Crime (or “Paler­mo Con­ven­tion”) are and the UN Con­ven­tion Against Cor­rup­tion (or “Meri­da Con­ven­tion”) are the pri­ma­ry tools to address these chal­lenges and are com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing their uni­ver­sal rat­i­fi­ca­tion and full implementation.

Sus­tain­ing the world eco­nom­ic recovery

25. The Min­is­ters exchanged views on how the EU and ASEAN could best help to achieve a sus­tained and bal­anced glob­al recov­ery. Tak­ing into account its eco­nom­ic resilience dur­ing the cur­rent cri­sis, Asia could be a major con­trib­u­tor to glob­al eco­nom­ic growth in the com­ing years, and boost­ing domes­tic demand would be impor­tant to rebal­ance growth.

26. The Min­is­ters resolved to con­tribute to reform the glob­al eco­nom­ic and finan­cial archi­tec­ture in order to safe­guard the glob­al econ­o­my from future crises, and to pro­mote region­al and glob­al eco­nom­ic growth and recov­ery. They also wel­comed the rep­re­sen­ta­tion and gov­er­nance reforms of the Inter­na­tion­al Finan­cial Insti­tu­tions agreed by the G‑20 in Pitts­burgh in Sep­tem­ber 2009, to ensure their legit­i­ma­cy and effectiveness. 

Doha

27. The Min­is­ters reaf­firmed the Doha Devel­op­ment Agen­da as a pri­or­i­ty for both ASEAN and the EU and stressed the impor­tance of achiev­ing an ear­ly, ambi­tious and bal­anced con­clu­sion at the ear­li­est oppor­tu­ni­ty. They empha­sised the need to ensure that nego­ti­a­tions remain on track. A suc­cess­ful and bal­anced con­clu­sion of the DDA is cru­cial in the con­text of the cur­rent glob­al eco­nom­ic weak­ness and would help reduce pro­tec­tion­ism. It would also send an impor­tant sig­nal of their gov­ern­ments’ con­tin­ued belief in and sup­port for strength­en­ing the mul­ti­lat­er­al trad­ing sys­tem. In this regard, the Min­is­ters reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to keep mar­kets open, reject pro­tec­tion­ism, refrain from rais­ing new bar­ri­ers to trade and invest­ment while avoid­ing the WTO-incon­sis­tent mea­sures. ASEAN Min­is­ters also expressed their appre­ci­a­tion for the EU’s con­tin­ued sup­port for acces­sion of Lao PDR to the WTO.

Cli­mate change and the environment

28. The Min­is­ters wel­comed the adop­tion of the ASEAN Lead­ers’ State­ment on Joint Response to Cli­mate Change issued at the 16th ASEAN Sum­mit in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. The Min­is­ters affirmed that the best way to achieve a com­pre­hen­sive post 2012 cli­mate agree­ment is to pur­sue a deal under the aus­pices of the UNFCCC. The Min­is­ters not­ed the large num­ber of coun­tries asso­ci­at­ing them­selves with the Copen­hagen Accord. Min­is­ters acknowl­edged the need for clos­er co-oper­a­tion in envi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion, sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and nat­ur­al resource man­age­ment, includ­ing sus­tain­able man­age­ment of for­est resources and the areas of bio­di­ver­si­ty and trans-bound­ary envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tion con­trol and man­age­ment. In this regard, ASEAN wel­comed EU efforts in devel­op­ing a post- 2010 bio­di­ver­si­ty pol­i­cy frame­work. ASEAN expressed appre­ci­a­tion for the EU’s long-stand­ing sup­port to the ASEAN Cen­ter for Bio­di­ver­si­ty and under­lined its firm com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue its efforts to ensure the long-term finan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty of this endeav­our, includ­ing through con­tri­bu­tions by ASEAN Mem­ber States to the ASEAN Bio­di­ver­si­ty Fund. The Min­is­ters also encour­aged fur­ther co-oper­a­tion in rela­tion to coral reefs, fish­eries, food secu­ri­ty, adap­ta­tion to cli­mate change and the imple­men­ta­tion of the Man­a­do Oceans Declaration.

29. The Min­is­ters, recog­nis­ing that avert­ing dan­ger­ous anthro­pogenic inter­fer­ence with the cli­mate sys­tem requires the increase in glob­al mean sur­face tem­per­a­ture to be kept below 2°C com­pared with pre-indus­tri­al lev­els, under­lined their com­mit­ment to work togeth­er to address cli­mate change and encour­aged all UNFCCC Par­ties to engage con­struc­tive­ly and work towards a legal­ly bind­ing glob­al agree­ment at COP 16/CMP 6 in Decem­ber 2010.

30. ASEAN warm­ly wel­comed the EU’s ini­tia­tive by intro­duc­ing, after COP 15, the “Fast Track” finan­cial com­mit­ment to pro­vide EUR 2.4 bil­lion to devel­op­ing coun­tries annu­al­ly from 2010 – 2012. 

31. ASEAN called upon the EU to take full account of the spe­cif­ic needs and spe­cial sit­u­a­tions of ASEAN Mem­ber States, par­tic­u­lar­ly the least devel­oped coun­tries in ASEAN and those most affect­ed by cli­mate change, and to sup­port them with ade­quate, pre­dictable and sus­tain­able finan­cial resources, trans­fer of tech­nol­o­gy, as well as capac­i­ty enhance­ment, to enable them to devel­op on a low emis­sion pathway.

32. While not­ing that devel­op­ing coun­tries may under­take actions vol­un­tar­i­ly and on the basis of sup­port, the EU encour­aged ASEAN to make active con­tri­bu­tions to the glob­al efforts to address cli­mate change through the devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of Nation­al­ly Appro­pri­ate Mit­i­ga­tion Actions (NAMAs), in accor­dance with their dif­fer­ent nation­al circumstances.