Western Europe and Southeast Asia

The European Community and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - despite remarkable dissimilarities with respect to their goals, functions and powers - have established a formal relationship which could provide a valuable model for interregional cooperation between industrialized and developing countries, now that repeated efforts to launch global North-South negotiations have come a dead end. This seems all the more significant in view of ASEAN's position in the Pacific basin which has established itself as a new development centre for the world economy. Opportunities for, and obstacles to, a closer relationship between the two groups were discussed in a conference convened in Rome by the Institute of European Studies "Alcide De Gasperi" in association with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies of Singapore. The purpose behind this collection of conference papers is not so much to review the various aspects of EC-ASEAN cooperation but to examine the inter-play of common and conflicting interests which shape the attitudes of the two organizations concerning mutual relations, dialogue with major trade partners and joint approaches to key issues within the United Nations and other international fora.