🇹ðŸ‡ðŸ‡°ðŸ‡ðŸ‡®ðŸ‡©ðŸ‡²ðŸ‡¾ðŸ‡µðŸ‡ðŸ‡¸ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡¹ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡»ðŸ‡³ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡¦ðŸ‡§ðŸ‡³ A lunch today with the Ambassadors of the ASEAN member states, hosted by the Embassy of Thailand here in Brussels.
It was an open conversation about how Belgium and Southeast Asia can work more closely together. ASEAN is the world’s fifth-largest economy, home to 700 million people, and a region growing at close to 5% a year. For Belgium, it matters both as a partner in diversifying our trade and as a partner in defending an international order based on rules.
We discussed the concrete steps that bring us closer. Belgium is in the process of acceding to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. The draft law is now before our Parliament. The European Union is deepening its trade ties across the region, with agreements concluded or under negotiation with several ASEAN countries. And in 2027, the EU and ASEAN will mark fifty years of partnership, an anniversary we want to give real meaning.
These ties also need personal contact. I’ll travel to Manila and Kuala Lumpur in the coming days, and to Thailand and Cambodia later this year, to take this cooperation further.
My thanks to Ambassador Kanchana for hosting us, and for her work over the past years to bring Belgium and the ASEAN countries closer together.
: Maxime Prévot
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium