Europe's long-standing relationship with Southeast Asia is shifting into a new gear this year. Our mutual engagement is growing still closer and deeper, particularly in the area of building peace, security and cooperation around the globe.

We have reached a milestone in our relations this year with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh in May on the accession of the European Union and its member states to the ASEAN Treaty on Amity and Cooperation.

ASEAN is a vital partner for us and I am delighted with this progress. The EU and its Asian partners have a common resolve to tackle today's regional and global threats together and a common interest in developing a system of regional integration and global governance. It is with this shared vision that I am travelling to Phuket next week for meetings with the ASEAN partners and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

We see ASEAN as the key driving force fostering regional integration in Asia. It has emerged as a serious regional player. We have followed with great interest as it has developed into a permanent regional organisation, inspired -- at least in part, we believe -- by our own example of successful integration in Europe.

We welcomed ASEAN's historic adoption last December of a new charter creating a legal framework for further integration and we believe that the ambitious roadmap for an ASEAN community will be an important factor in helping to bring about lasting peace, stability, shared prosperity and respect for human rights in the region.

The EU is proud to be in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which is the only regional forum in Asia devoted solely to security issues. We are stepping up our involvement with ARF, which has contributed to peace and security in Asia over the past 15 years, because we regard it as an essential venue for dialogue.

The need for Europe and Asia to discuss global strategies is all the greater this year, given the multiple crises currently facing the world: 'food, fuel, flu and financial -- the four Fs', as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said recently. The EU has vital interests in the region. Its trade with East Asia has overtaken its trade with the US and it is ASEAN's biggest trading partner.

That is why the ARF meeting in Phuket is so important to us. The ARF is a central pillar in the evolving regional security architecture and with our ARF partners, now and in future, we will share our vision of working together, as part of a global, rules-based multilateral system, to promote peace and stability through confidence-building action and preventive diplomacy.