IN BUILDING AN ASEAN COMMUNITY, ASEAN MUST ALSO STRENGTHEN TIES 

WITH OTHER REGIONAL GROUPS – ROMULO

25 September 2007, United Nations, New York – Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo today said that even as ASEAN builds a caring and sharing community, it must also continue to strengthen its relations with other regional organizations.

The Secretary made this call during the meeting between ASEAN and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at the United Nations today.  The meeting was co-chaired by H.E. Nitya Pibulsonggram, Foreign Minister of Thailand, as ASEAN Coordinator for GCC relations, and H.E. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , as current GCC Chair. 

The meeting strongly supported a proposal made by Secretary Romulo for ASEAN and GCC senior officials to begin discussions on formal linkages as well as specific projects for the ASEAN and GCC foreign ministers to consider at their next meeting.  The Secretary also suggested that it may not be necessary to wait for next year’s General Assembly in New York for the ASEAN and GCC ministers to meet.  He said that the ministers should meet earlier.  This suggestion was also endorsed by the meeting.

The Secretary Romulo said “ASEAN is firmly committed to building strong relations with other regional groups.  In the Declaration of the Bali Concorde II in 2003 and the Vientiane Action Programme in 2004, ASEAN made sure that in building our community, we maintain our outward looking stance.” 

“We are carrying this commitment further,” he added, saying, “at the heart of the future of ASEAN is its Charter, which we are currently drafting.  An important part of the ASEAN Charter will be on ASEAN’s external relations with other regions and dialogue countries.” 

With this crucial provision in the Charter, Secretary Romulo said that ASEAN will be in an even better position to “invigorate its relations with key partners from other regions, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

The Secretary then said that ASEAN had achieved must progress in drafting the Charter.  “It was in Cebu where the drafting process for the ASEAN Charter, which will codify ASEAN norms and values and provide a better organization for ASEAN, was launched,” the Secretary explained. 

With this in mind, and pending the adoption of the ASEAN Charter, Secretary Romulo said “ASEAN and GCC should be made more meaningful and productive by adhering to a substantive agenda.” 

“I believe that such a substantive agenda should include the establishment of links between ASEAN and the GCC in the key areas of energy, trade, investment, migration, inter-faith and inter-civilization dialogue and transnational crime,” Secretary Romulo said. END