I.          Background

1.         Both, Australia and New Zealand are among the very first dialogue partners of ASEAN.  Australia established its relations with ASEAN in 1974 while New Zealand in 1975. The first ASEAN-Australia and ASEAN-New Zealand summits were held in August 1977 in Kuala Lumpur. 

II.         Political and Security Cooperation

2.         In 1993, the scope of ASEAN-Australia dialogue was expanded to include political and security issues.

3.         Both Australia and New Zealand have been actively involved in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and have co-chaired a number of ARF meetings including sessions on peace keeping. Their participation at the annual ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMCs) contributes immensely to greater dialogue and exchange of views on key regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.

4.         During the PMC+1 session on 1 July 2004 in Jakarta, Australia signed the ASEAN-Australia Joint Declaration on Cooperation in Combating International Terrorism. The signing represents the continued commitment of both sides to closely engage each other in responding to the challenge of international terrorism.  To this end, at the First Consultation between ASEAN Senior Officials on Transnational Crime and Australia in Brunei Darussalam in September 2004, both sides agreed to develop a plan to implement the Joint Declaration. ASEAN and Australia will also explore the possibility of utilising the South East Asia Regional Centre for Counter Terrorism in Kuala Lumpur, the Indonesia Law Enforcement Centre (ILEC) in Semarang, or the International Law Enforcement Agency (ILEA) facilities in Bangkok to implement cooperation activities.

III.        Economic Cooperation

5.         The establishment of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)-Closer Economic Relations of Australia and New Zealand (CER) linkages since September 2002 has been serving as a platform for economic engagement amongst ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand.

6.         The AFTA-CER Closer Economic Partnership (CEP) was the first cross-regional engagement for ASEAN as a regional grouping. The AFTA-CER CEP aimed at promoting greater trade and investment flows between ASEAN and CER. The CEP, among others, included cooperation in eliminating   technical barriers to trade and non-tariff barriers, customs, capacity building, trade and investment promotion and facilitation, standards and conformity assessment, electronic commerce, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

7.         In the process of accelerating CEP projects/activities, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand established the AFTA-CER Business Council (ACBC) to revitalise the involvement of businesses in the CEP initiative. The ACBC provided business views on the priority areas for cooperation under the CEP.

8.         Over the years, ASEAN and the CER Countries continued to be important trading partners. In 2003, ASEAN exported to CER US$18.85 billion or 4.4% of her total exports to the world and imported from CER US$8.71 billion or 2.4% of her total imports from the world.  The bilateral trade between ASEAN-CER grew significantly by 33% from US$20.7 billion in 2002 to US$ 27.56 billion in 2003. 

9.         In terms of investment flows,  CER’s FDI stocks in ASEAN in 2003 were valued at around US$3.1 billion up from around $US1.8 billion in 2002.  ASEAN FDI stocks in CER in 2003 were around US$4.9 billion, compared with around US$3.9 billion in 2002.

10.        Noting the significant room for future growth as the ASEAN and CER economies open up to each other, the recent Ministerial Meeting between ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) and their CER counterparts on 5 September 2004 in Jakarta agreed to recommend to the Leaders of ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand that ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand further their economic integration by negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The Ministers would also propose to the Leaders that the FTA negotiations would commence in 2005 and be concluded in two years.

IV.        Functional Cooperation

11.        ASEAN and Australia held the first ASEAN-Australia Forum in 1974, at which the ASEAN-Australia Economic Cooperation Programme (AAECP) was established. AAECP is the mechanism through which Australia extended development assistance to ASEAN. The programme was implemented in three phases - 1974-1989 (A$ 90 million), 1989-1994 (A$ 33 million), and 1994-2003 (A$37 million). The current phase of assistance, the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Programme (AADCP) which commenced in 2003 would end in 2008. The A$45 million programme is aimed at promoting  sustainable development within ASEAN, by assisting ASEAN to tackle priority regional development challenges through regional cooperation, consisting of three components, namely the AADCP-Regional Economic Policy Support Facility, AADCP-Regional Partnership Scheme (RPS), and AADCP-Programme Stream (PS).  

12.        New Zealand has contributed substantially to the development needs of ASEAN. From 1975 to 2003, New Zealand had provided development assistance amounting to NZ$32.2 million. In the current fiscal year of 2003-2004, New Zealand is providing assistance amounting to NZ$1.8 million to ASEAN. The ASEAN-New Zealand development cooperation now focuses mainly to support to the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) activities in areas such as customs, and standards and conformance. New Zealand is also a long-standing supporter of development cooperation programmes in the Mekong River Basin.

13.        Over the years, the development cooperation between ASEAN and Australia as well as ASEAN and New Zealand has proven to be flexible and responsive to the evolving priorities of ASEAN. Australia and New Zealand has been an active supporter of Ha Noi Plan of Action (HPA). With HPA comes to an end, Australia and New Zealand has also agreed to focus its areas of cooperation to facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP), the successor of HPA.  

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