ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have a longstanding partnership. This chapter traces the evolution of EU-ASEAN relations, and examines the real extent of their cooperation in the security arena. The institutional relationship between ASEAN and the EU constitutes one of the oldest inter-institutional arrangements for pursuing common goals, albeit primarily in the domain of trade and development. The chapter suggests how EU-ASEAN security cooperation can be further strengthened towards the goal of enhancing the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific consistent with EU preferences. The EU and ASEAN's economic interests were aligned once the ASEAN countries recovered from the Asian financial crisis and moved towards the ambition of building an ASEAN Economic Community. Despite the foreign policy ambitions for the EU outlined in the 2016 EU Global Strategy (EUGS), external developments have largely silenced those ambitions as they pertain to Southeast Asia.