December 23, 2022

The EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit: Advancing bilateral cooperation in challenging times

On 14 December 2022, the “EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit” took place in Brussels, celebrating 45 years of EU-ASEAN diplomatic relations. Alongside the Summit a number of other meetings were held, among which the “EU-ASEAN Business Summit” and the “EU-ASEAN Youth Summit”, both of which took place on 12 December 2022. Following the Summit, the EU and ASEAN are more committed than ever to actively promote enhanced engagement by strengthening their Strategic Partnership. They also agreed to expand their shared efforts on climate change mitigation, people-to-people connectivity and security in the Indo-Pacific.

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Thailand: Role Model and Bridge Builder for EU-ASEAN Cooperation in Combatting IUU Fishing

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most serious threats to marine ecosystems, undermining the national and regional efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks. With an estimated global value of IUU fishing between 10-20 billion EUR per year, one in every five fish is illegally caught from IUU fishing activities annually. Moreover, IUU fishing also comes with social and economic implications since it undermines the fairness of responsible fishermen and gives rise to forced labour and human trafficking.

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Southeast Asia’s Summit Season

In November 2022, Southeast Asia entered the centre of global attention as the region hosted an unprecedented group of major international summits: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Related Summits in Cambodia on 10-13 November, the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit in Indonesia on 15-16 November and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Thailand on 18-19 November. Yet, as the summit season gathered the world’s leaders to foster stronger international cooperation, the gatherings were dominated by soaring diplomatic tensions and the growing strategic polarisation, consequently putting Southeast Asia’s international leadership to the test.

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