EU- East Asia Relations: Effects of the Global Financial and Eurozone Debt Crises

Year 2013, Volume: 18 Issue: 1, 33 - 52, 01.05.2013

Ramon Pacheco Pardo

Abstract

Relations between the EU and East Asia have evolved as a result of the global financial and Eurozone debt crises. Throughout the 1990s, economic, political and security relations were dominated by the EU. As an increasing number of East Asian countries became more economically successful and diplomatically assertive throughout the 1990s, EU-East Asian relations became more balanced. With the onset of the global financial crisis, balanced relations fostered cooperation, while a degree of satisfaction spread over East Asia, one of the regions less affected by the crisis. The Eurozone debt crisis has accentuated both developments. Today, cooperation in economics, politics and security dominate EU-East Asian relations. Many leaders in East Asia seek to help their European counterparts while pointing out the superior performance of their domestic economies

Keywords

European Union, East Asia, crisis, Cold War, 9/11, Global Financial Crisis, Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis.

References

• East Asia is understood in this article to include all the countries that are part of ASEAN+3. The author acknowledges that there is an ongoing debate regarding which countries are part of East Asia. However, circumscribing the article’s analysis to ASEAN+3 serves the analytical purposes of this article.
• For the sake of simplicity, the name EU will also be used to refer to the European Economic Community in this article.
• Claire Randerson and Christopher M. Dent, “Korean and Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in Europe: An Examination of Comparable and Contrasting Patterns”, Asian Studies Review, Vol. 20, No. 2 (November 1996), pp. 45-69.
• Natalia Chaban, Martin Holland and Peter Ryan (eds.), The EU Through the Eyes of Asia: Media, Public and Elite Perceptions in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand, Singapore- Warsaw, University of Warsaw, 2007.
• Sebastian Bersick et al. (eds.), Asia in the Eyes of Europe: Images of a Rising Giant, Baden- Baden, Nomos, 2012.
• “Communication from the Commission to the Council: Towards a New Asia Strategy”, COM (94) 314 final, Brussels, 13 July 1994.
• “Communication from the Commission: Europe and Asia: A Strategic Framework of Enhanced Partnerships”, COM (2001) 469 final, Brussels, 4 September 2001.
• ‘Normative power Europe’ refers to the conceptualisation of the EU as a power with the ‘ability to shape the conceptions of “normal’ in international relations’. In this conceptualisation, the EU is deemed to be different from other actors due to its foreign policy, based on consolidating democracy, the rule of law, and the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. See, Ian Manners, “Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?”, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2 (June 2002), pp. 239 and 241.
• Ajit Singh, “‘Asian Capitalism’ and the Financial Crisis”, in John Eatwell and Lance Taylor (eds.), International Capital Markets in Transition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 339. 10 Ibid., p. 348.
• Moises Naim, “Washington Consensus or Washington Confusion?”, Foreign Policy, Vol. 118, No. 1 (Spring 2000), p. 89.
• Hubert Zimmermann, “Realist Power Europe? The EU in the Negotiations about China’s and Russia’s WTO Accession”, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 45, No. 4 (November 2007), pp. 820-824.
• Mathieu Remond, “The EU’s Refusal to Grant China “Market Economy Status (MES)”, Asia Europe Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3 (September 2007), pp. 435-356.
• Randerson and Dent, “Korean and Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in Europe”, pp. 45- 69.
• “Communication from the Commission: Europe and Asia”, p. 4.
• Laurence Fung, Chi-Sang Tam and Ip-wing Yu, “Assessing the Integration of Asia’s Equity and Bond Markets”, BIS Paper, No. 42 (October 2008).
• Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, “The European Union, Burma/Myanmar and ASEAN: A Challenge to European Norms and Values or a New Opportunity”, Asia Europe Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2-3 (July 2012), p. 171.
• World Trade Organisation, “Dispute Settlement”
• at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_e.htm [last visited 3 December 2012]. 19 Ibid.
• Anthony Forster, “The European Union in South-East Asia: Continuity and Change in Turbulent Times”, International Affairs, Vol. 75, No. 4 (October 1999), p. 750. 21 Ibid., p. 751.
• Amitav Acharya, “Culture, Security, Multilateralism: The ‘ASEAN Way’ and Regional Order”, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1998), p. 57.
• Yeo Lay Hwee, “The Bangkok ASEM and the Future of Asia-Europe Relations”, Southeast Asian Affairs, (1997), p. 37.
• Jorn Dosch, “Changing Security Cultures in Europe and Southeast Asia: Implications for Inter-regionalism”, Asia Europe Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4 (December 2003), p. 495.
• Alain Ruche, “The EU’s Soft Power: Does it Work in Asia”, in Gustaaf Geeraerts and Eva Gross (eds.), Perspectives for a European Security Strategy Towards Asia: Views from Asia, Europe and the US, Brussels, Brussels University Press, 2011, p. 42.
• Wu Xinbo, “Understanding the Geopolitical Implications of the Global Financial Crisis”, The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3 (October 2010), p. 159.
• World Trade Organisation, “Dispute Settlement”.
• International Monetary Fund, “Quota and Voting Shares Before and After Implementation of Reforms Agreed in 2008 and 2010 (In Percentage Shares of Total IMF Quota)”
• at http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2011/pdfs/quota_tbl.pdf [last visited 3 March 2013].
• Mark Thatcher, “Western Policies Towards Sovereign Wealth Fund Equity Investments: A Comparison of the UK, the EU and the US”, Kuwait Programme on Development, Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf States Policy Brief, No. 1 (August 2012), p. 1.
• Elliot Posner, “Making Rules for Global Finance: Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation at the Turn of the Millennium”, International Organization, Vol. 63, No. 4 (October 2009), pp. 665-699.
• United States Department of State, “Proliferation Security Initiative Participants”, at http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c27732.htm [last visited 13 January 2013].
• Combined Maritime Forces, “Combined Maritime Forces”, at http://combinedmaritimeforces. com/ [last visited 14 December 2012].
• “Backgrounder: China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit Meeting”, Xinhua, 13 May 2012.
• Simon Nixon, “Euro’s Unity Continues to Defy the Bears”, The Wall Street Journal, 3 December 2012.
• For a timeline of the ESDC, see, BBC, “Timeline: The Unfolding Eurozone Crisis”, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13856580 [last visited 26 January 2013].
• Danny Quah, “The Global Economy’s Shifting Centre of Gravity”, Global Policy, Vol. 2, No. 1 (January 2011), pp. 3-9.
• Carlos Tejada, “China Chides EU Over Iran Ban”, The Wall Street Journal, 26 January 2012.
• Fredrik Erixon, “To Thrive, Euro Countries Must Cut Welfare State”, Bloomberg, 19 April 2012.
• Song Jung-a, “G20 Agrees Historic Reform of IMF”, Financial Times, 23 October 2010.
• Bank for International Settlements, “Basel Committee Broadens its Membership”, at http:// www.bis.org/press/p090610.htm [last visited 22 December 2012].
• European Commission, “Trade- Countries and Regions- Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)”, at http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/bilateral-relations/ regions/asean/ [last visited 5 December 2012].
• European Commission, “Trade- Countries and Regions- Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)”, at http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/bilateral-relations/ countries/japan/ [last visited 5 December 2012].
• European Council, “EU-Japan: Summit of Friendship”, at http://www.european-council. europa.eu/home-page/highlights/eu-japan-summit-of-friendship?lang=en [last visited 5 December 2012].
• Tejada, “China Chides EU Over Iran Ban”.
• William Mallard and Martin Vaughan, “In Asia, Europe Leaders Seek to Deflect Heat”, The Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2012.