South-East Asia

Considering arms trade an integral part of the EU’s foreign policy toolbox, what is the status of security cooperation between Europe and Asia? Who exactly benefits from European military technology and know-how and how does that affect the overall strategic balance in the region?

This Report, based on the work of the EU committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP EU), focuses on the territorial disputes that currently put peace and stability in the region at risk.

This brief highlights the need to develop deeper bilateral relations with a country that is both strategically important and a hub in its own region. Can the EU really afford, as a whole, to engage only sporadically with the world’s largest Muslim country and third-largest democracy?

This Occasional Paper examines one of the ‘forgotten conflicts’, between the ‘Moros’ and the Philippine State, highlighting the EU's gradual move from the humanitarian and development arena towards a more explicitly political role in the peace process, in close cooperation with its Member States and with European NGOs.