Dialogue In The Dark Singapore

[Randell Magtoto]

Thetour will take you through many places with you navigating in the dark through a garden, boarding a boat to sail down Singapore river, a HDB estate, market before ultimately facing the challenge of crossing a busy street. It will then end off with you ordering food/drinks at the cafe and having a meal while chatting with your guide (basically have a dialogue in the Dark!).

When we were done, we were led back to the entrance. It took us awhile for our eyes to adjust back to the light. I think deep down, most of us were glad that we were able to see once again after experiencing the darkness. This was also our first time seeing our guide in person instead of identifying him by voice only within the tour(:

The Commission first set out an overall framework for EC relations with Asian countries in its 1994 Communication "Towards a New Asia Strategy". The present Communication updates that strategy, taking account of key developments in the intervening years, and establishing a comprehensive strategic framework for our relations with Asia and its sub-regions in the coming decade.

After commenting on the major economic, political and social changes in Asia, Europe and the world in recent years, the Communication takes stock of the development of EU-Asia relations since 1994. Our political dialogue with key partners in the region has intensified, and our trade and investment relations have expanded (notwithstanding the impact of the East Asian Crisis). There has been a modest growth in our development and economic cooperation with Asian countries. But much remains to be done, for example in deepening and broadening our political dialogue, in enhancing our bilateral trade and investment relations and strengthening our cooperation in the WTO, and in ensuring that our aid programmes in Asia can achieve their full potential. The degree of mutual awareness between our two regions remains insufficient.

Taking account of the above, the present Communication proposes that we should set an overall strategic framework for our relations with Asia in the coming decade based on the core objective of strengthening the EU's political and economic presence across the region, and raising this to a level commensurate with the growing global weight of an enlarged EU.

- build global partnerships and alliances with Asian countries, in appropriate international fora, to help address both the challenges and the opportunities offered by globalisation and to strengthen our joint efforts on global environmental and security issues;

These general objectives and priorities are elaborated further in a series of specific action points for the region as a whole, and for each of the four key sub-regions (South Asia, South-East Asia, North-East Asia, Australasia).

This overall strategic framework (which may subsequently be amplified through specific sub-regional strategies as appropriate, as well as through the Country Strategy Papers focusing on development cooperation), will also serve as an important input for a proposed revision of the ALA Regulation in the first semester of 2002 (following on an overall evaluation now commencing). Looking forward, it will be important to take stock of progress on a regular basis, and it is suggested that the strategy may usefully be reviewed, and adapted as necessary, in five or six years' time.

For this strategic framework to be fully effective, it is essential that there is a proper consistency between the objectives being set, and the resources available to meet them. Our first priority is to ensure that the available resources are used in an effective and timely fashion, implementing fully the ongoing reform of our external assistance. Once this has been achieved, we will be better able to address the longer-term question of whether and to what extent the level of resources available for our cooperation activities with Asia should be increased.

In conclusion, the Communication emphasises that Asia is a crucial economic and political partner for Europe. More than ever before, the EU and its Asian partners should work together in addressing the global challenges which we both face, and the global opportunities which we should all be able to share. Our Asian partners are invited to reflect on their side on how we might address these issues together.

In 1994, the Commission's Communication "Towards a New Asia Strategy" [1] set out for the first time an overall direction to be followed in our relations with Asia, and sought to build a more comprehensive and balanced framework for our relations with this vast region.

The 1994 Strategy paper covered South, South-East and North-East Asia. It emphasised the rapid economic changes that had taken place in the region over the previous decades, and the need to ensure an effective and proactive EU presence in the region. It set the key objectives of strengthening our economic presence in the region, contributing to its political stability through a broadening of our political and economic relations with the region as a whole, promoting the development of the less prosperous countries, and contributing to the spread of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. It put forward eight key priorities to be addressed, including the continued strengthening of our bilateral relations, a raised profile of the EU in Asia, support for regional cooperation (with a view to enhancing peace and security), encouraging Asia to play a greater role in multilateral fora, ensuring open markets and a non-discriminatory business framework, encouraging the integration of state economies into the free market, contributing to sustainable development and poverty alleviation in the least prosperous countries, and the importance of ensuring a coordinated approach, across the EU, to our relations with the region.

This Strategy was subsequently elaborated further for specific countries or sectors in a number of more targeted Communications, touching for example on our relations with China, India, ASEAN, Indonesia, the ASEM process, and on the energy and environment sectors. [2]

Overall, the 1994 Asia Strategy has served us well (for an assessment of its implementation, see section 3 below). In many respects, the issues and responses identified there remain broadly valid today. However, the world has moved on since 1994, with significant economic and political changes both in Asia and in Europe, and with the acceleration of globalisation (and the intensification of the opportunities and challenges which that offers). In the coming years, the EU will experience a further transformation, with enlargement on the horizon, with the single market and single currency achieving their full potential, and with a continued strengthening in EU policy coordination, both in foreign policy and in justice and home affairs policies.

The present Communication thus seeks to review and update our approach to Asia, to provide a new strategic framework which will address the changes since 1994, and to establish a coherent, comprehensive and balanced strategic approach for our relations with Asia in the coming decade.

It has sometimes been suggested that even the term "Asia" may be a false concept, bestowing an artificial homogeneity on the vastly diverse economic and political geography of the region. But labels matter less than the reality which they represent, and it is the reality of Asia which is of essential importance for the EU. The present paper will take as its area of coverage the countries stretching from Afghanistan in the west to Japan in the east, and from China in the north to New Zealand in the south, plus all points between. It covers therefore those countries in South Asia, South-East Asia and North-East Asia which would meet any common definition of Asia (and which were covered in the 1994 Strategy). It also covers, for the first time, Australasia - given that the economic and political links of Australia and New Zealand with their neighbours to the north, and their geographic proximity, are sufficiently great that they should be treated here as part of the wider Asian and Asia-Pacific region [3].

[3] This paper does not however cover certain other regions or countries which might geographically be considered as part of the wider Asia and Asia-Pacific region - Pacific Russia, Central Asia, the developing countries of the Pacific, nor the countries of the Gulf or the Near East. In varying degrees, these all have significant political and (sometimes economic), relationships with Asia as a whole, and an understanding of these relationships is an essential part of the broader context of Asia. But in general the focus of their attention is elsewhere, and our relations with these countries are dealt with in a different context.

Apart from the region's demographic and economic weight, Asia has been the cradle of several of the world's major religions, and its cultural richness is unparalleled. It is also the locus of several longstanding sources of tension or conflict (for example in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, on the borders of Afghanistan, in Aceh and Mindanao, across the Taiwan Straits, in the South China Sea, and on the Korean peninsula). Several Asian states have a nuclear capability, and certain countries continue to cause concern in relation to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Asia is also home to two-thirds of the world's poor, with 800 million people living on less than $1 per day, with food security, health, and access to basic services still ever-present issues in most of the lower-income countries of the region, and with serious disparities of income and opportunity still challenging many middle-income countries. Asia also has a critical role to play in addressing global, regional and local environmental challenges - reflecting the region's geographic, demographic and industrial weight, the importance of its natural resources and biodiversity, and the rapidity of economic and demographic change across the region. As an example, the region accounts for some 33% of global CO2 emissions [4], and issues relating to climate change, energy consumption and efficiency, forest and watershed protection, and biodiversity are necessarily high on the regional and global agenda.

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