VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members` senior officials discussed the vision for strategic partnership between China and ASEAN towards 2030 during the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), Singapore, Thursday, before the 32nd ASEAN Summit. Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia to the ASEAN Ade Padmo Sarwono remarked that the discussion still covered the general scope, as a preparation among the 10 ASEAN member countries to be proposed to the ASEAN Summit and ASEAN-related Summit in Singapore in November 2018.

"This ASEAN-China strategic vision discussion is part of the preparations ahead of the event in November. During the discussion, the ASEAN covered the outcome and the ways to negotiate with China to be proposed in the upcoming event," he noted.

The outcome of the negotiations between both sides is expected to be presented by the leaders of ASEAN and China at the 21st ASEAN-China Summit in Singapore in November 2018 as well as to mark the 15th anniversary of the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership.

"Currently, our partnership level with China is strategic. The 2030 vision will serve as a beacon to further enhance ASEAN-China relations in various fields," he stated.

The 2030 vision, in principle, will cover the three pillars of ASEAN: politics, law, security; economy; and sociocultural. For the political pillar, he explained that one of the main agendas was to accelerate the completion of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea as well as to improve countermeasures against terrorism and transnational crime. For the economic pillar, the ASEAN is keen to increase investment and trade with China as an economic community. In the sociocultural field, the ASEAN is looking to enhance people-to-people contacts, especially among academic.

"The discussion is not yet complete, but the three pillars of ASEAN must be included in the negotiation process," he emphasized.

Discussion of the vision of the 2030 ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership at the ASEAN SOM level is a follow-up of the agreement between the countries` leaders at the ASEAN-China Summit in Manila, the Philippines, in November 2017. During the meeting, ASEAN and China have agreed to improve cooperation that has been going well. Currently, China is ASEAN`s biggest trading partner, while the bloc is the former`s third-largest partner. The two sides have also agreed to work together to achieve the trade target of US$1 trillion and investment of $500 billion by 2020.

The SOM of ASEAN is to be held in Singapore, the chair of the 2018 ASEAN. SOM is the initial meeting before the Ministerial Meeting and the 32nd ASEAN Summit to be also attended by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. ( antara )