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EU’s Federica Mogherini to attend ASEAN's 50th anniversary
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EU Ambassador to ASEAN Francisco Fontan addresses the audience at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on Sept 14. (JP/Ayomi Amindoni)
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U's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, is set to attend ASEAN's 50th anniversary celebrations in Manila, the Philippines, on Aug. 8, marking at the same time a series of landmark anniversaries shared between the two regional blocs, an envoy has said.
One of ASEAN's 10 dialogue partners, the EU this year is also celebrating its own milestone anniversary since its establishment 60 years ago, initiated by the Rome Treaty in 1957. The two blocs celebrate 40 years of relations this year.
"The European Union and ASEAN are very strong partners. We have a very strong cooperation throughout all the ASEAN pillars; in political, economic and sociocultural," EU Ambassador to ASEAN Francisco Fontan told a press briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday.
With the EU mission to ASEAN headquartered in Jakarta, he said, a series of events were also set to be held in the Indonesian capital. Fontan highlighted the EU-ASEAN Run on May 7, a 7-kilometer race from the EU mission offices at the Intiland Tower to the ASEAN Secretariat, as a celebration of the "strong people-to-people aspects" between the two blocs.
Robust economic ties were also apparent, he noted, as recent data from the EU places the European bloc as ASEAN's largest investor, with foreign direct investment of €131.6 billion (US$143.6 billion) or 22 percent of total investment in the region. The EU is also ASEAN's second-largest trade partner, after China, with bilateral trade reaching €201.5 billion in 2015.
