“Isolation is not a good solution; the European Union should develop closer cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Hungarian news agency MTI on Friday.
Péter Szijjártó attended a meeting of EU and ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Bangkok, at which 28 European Union member states held discussions with 10 of the region’s countries.
“There is currently a global competition between regional economic and trade integrations and it has become clear that countries and regions that are incapable of forging alliances with the economic integrations of other, far-away regions, will fall behind and lose a significant level of their competitiveness”, the Minister explained. “Accordingly, when the European Union faces historic challenges it must not isolate itself, because that solution to the current challenges is the one that will have the worst possible effects”, he declared.
“Southeast Asia is a dynamically developing region with economies whose level of technology is extremely high and who apply the results of innovative research & development within their economies, and accordingly now that we are moving forward into a new industrial era it is in Europe’s interests to develop the closest possible cooperation with the region”, he highlighted.
The ten members of ASEAN have a total of 628 million inhabitants, meaning it is the most highly populated region after China and India, the Foreign Minister noted.
Three main areas have been determined with regard to forging relations, including the fact that “the stalled negotiations on a free trade agreements must be dragged out of their state of suspended animation” and must recommence. Negotiations with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore are in various phases and it is in Hungary’s interests for the negotiations to be concluded and the relative agreements signed as soon as possible. This would improve opportunities for Hungarian enterprises to enter the market, primarily within the fields of water management, agricultural technologies and info-communications technologies”, he pointed out.
Hungarian companies currently realise two billion U.S. Dollars in trade flow with the ASEAN countries, and in the interests of improving the position of Hungarian enterprises in this stiff competition Eximbank has opened a 1.5 billion Dollar credit line to facilitate business cooperation with these ten countries, the Minister told the press.
Mr. Szijjártó said that another important area of cooperation was creating relationships between people, because there is also competition for cooperation with Southeast Asia within Europe itself. For this reason, Hungary has offered a total of 400 scholarships places for students from the ten ASEAN countries to attend Hungarian universities, some of whom have already begun their studies.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister also spoke about the fact that the parties had agreed: The EU would begin negotiation s with the members of ASEAN on a comprehensive air traffic agreement according to which new air routes would be opened between the two regions. Hungary’s goal is for some of these new routes to land in Budapest, he highlighted, adding that if this comprehensive agreement is concluded then improved air traffic links could result in an additional eight billion euros in economic benefits at European level.
On the subject of security issues, Mr. Szijjártó said that every region is involved in the fight against Islamic extremism and accordingly the parties also reached an agreement on security cooperation. Counteracting Islamic radicalism, which is often a hotbed for terrorism, which in turn is one of the causes of migration, is in our common interests, he explained.