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UK closes in on dialogue partnership with ASEAN
A long-held moratorium on expanding ASEAN's external relations appears to be the only thing keeping the United Kingdom from deepening its relationship with the bloc following Brexit.
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Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (center) and compatriot and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi (right) attend the ASEAN leaders' summit at the bloc's Secretariat building in Jakarta on April 24. (Handout/Muchlis Jr/Indonesian Presidential Palace via REUTERS)
T
he United Kingdom is inching closer to becoming ASEAN’s 11th dialogue partner this year, after the group’s chair, Brunei, called for the region’s top diplomats to move the process forward at a recent ASEAN summit in Jakarta.
But a long-term ban on expanding the organization’s external relations raises questions about whether and how the partnership will be achieved.
According to Brunei’s statement at the ASEAN leader’s meeting on Myanmar last month, the leaders agreed with the ASEAN Secretariat’s recommendation that the bloc accept the UK’s application for dialogue partnership and “tasked the ASEAN foreign ministers with undertaking the appropriate process” to facilitate the partnership by their next meeting.
The Secretariat is currently led by senior Bruneian diplomat and trade negotiator, Lim Jock Hoi. The 54th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting is to be held in early August.
The UK, seeking to strengthen partnerships further afield following its departure from the European Union, has set its sights on expanding its presence in Southeast Asia, where it already enjoys close ties with Commonwealth countries Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
The country submitted a formal application to become a dialogue partner in June of last year and has set up an advance regional mission and delved into various engagements with the bloc over the past few months.
In April, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab visited several countries in the region, including Indonesia, and engaged with ASEAN through the ASEAN-UK Open-Ended Troika Dialogue.
