The EU and the countries of South-East Asia have enjoyed formal bilateral relations for four decades. Today the relationship between them covers areas like political and security matters, economic and trade, social and cultural, as well as development cooperation.

Besides the trade negotiations with individual South-East Asian countries, the EU cooperates closely with the region as a whole.

On the political side, there has been an increased EU engagement vis-à-vis South-East Asia, which culminated in June 2015 with a Joint Communication to the EP and the Council outlining further steps to scale up the relationship towards a Strategic Partnership.

IP Key SEA supports the EU in its Free Trade Agreement talks and Intellectual Property Dialogues by providing the necessary technical expertise on IP issues.

IP Key SEA also assists countries in the region to implement their intellectual property rights commitments set out in the Free Trade Agreements with the EU.

Annexes