80
ASEAN
European Economic Community (EEC), in 1973, when ASEAN and the EEC began to conduct an “informal dialogue”. (Some date the formalization of the ASEAN-EEC relationship in 1977.) As ASEAN ministers noted then, it was right that the association should engage in a dialogue with another regional group, the most advanced among the world’s regional associations. To them, a relationship with Brussels also meant an important mark of international recognition. In practical terms, ASEAN used the dialogue with the EEC as a vehicle for seeking access for the member-countries’ products to the lucrative European market, promoting European investments in ASEAN, and attracting development assistance to the member-states. However, the political benefits of the relationship have also been high in ASEAN’s mind. For its part, the European Union (EU) sees ASEAN as a commercial and strategic link to the fast-rising East Asian region. To reinforce its relationship with the association, the EU supports some ASEAN projects, particularly those having to do with the environment, energy and regional economic integration. EU and ASEAN ministers meet regularly for discussions on international issues and on the relations between the two groups. Since 1996, the EU member-states and Asian countries, now including all ASEAN member-states, have been meeting at the summit in the Asia Europe Meeting every two years. This relationship is underpinned by the numerous cultural, intellectual and people-to-people exchanges sponsored by the Asia Europe Foundation, which was set up in 1997 and is headquartered in Singapore. In somewhat of a contrast, the relationship between ASEAN as a group and Japan started with a specific economic issue — the surge in Japan’s production and export of synthetic rubber, which competed directly with Southeast Asia’s