ROAD TO 45
2022 marks the 45th anniversary of EU-ASEAN dialogue relations! 🌍🤝🌏 To commemorate this occasion, the Delegation of the European Union to ASEAN is producing THE ROAD TO 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos, featuring EU and ASEAN eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years.
For our first video, as we celebrate Europe Day on May 9, we will listen to Benjie Aquino, a young leader in the Philippines and a member of the EU Youth Sounding Board. For him, the youth should be empowered to take up space and be part of creating the future.
Just a month after the video of the EU Youth Sounding Board, this time is for the second entry on The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. We will hear from Senjaya Mulia, the Founder of the ASEAN Youth Organization. 🧑🤝🧑👭👫👬
Ambassador Rosario Manalo, a career diplomat in the Philippines who serves as the country’s Special Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, is our guest for the third entry of The Road to 45. 🇵🇭🌏
In this video, Ambassador Manalo talks about how the ASEAN region deals with human rights issues and compares it to the approach taken by the European Union. Ambassador Manalo further encourages our young diplomats to learn from the older generation and be equipped with the tools to address current and future regional as well as global challenges.
We have the honour to listen to ASEAN’s very own Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi for the fourth entry for the Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. 🌍🤝🌏
Before his stint as the ASEAN Secretary-General, the Bruneian government official worked as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Brunei. 🇧🇳
In this video, let’s listen to him as he talks about ASEAN-EU relations and their strategic partnership efforts such as in air transport and post-pandemic recovery. 📈
In the fifth entry on The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, we will learn about the dynamics between the two regions from the Rector of the College of Europe, Federica Mogherini. 🌍🤝🌏
Ms Mogherini served as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. 🇪🇺🌍
In this video, she discusses the importance of deepening relations between the EU and the ASEAN region. For Rector Mogherini, the European Union offers an additional element of partnership for countries in the ASEAN region.
For our sixth entry on The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, listen to Sinsavanh Sonepaseuth’s inspiring story as an empowered young scholar at the University of Dunaújváros in Hungary. 🇭🇺🇪🇺
Sinsavanh is a youth leader from Lao People’s Democratic Republic who, before coming to Europe, persevered to learn English all by herself. As a young leader and an active member in her community, she has initiated projects including the “Guiding Helper”, aimed at guiding young students in their career paths. 🇱🇦
Let us listen to Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, who served as the ASEAN Secretary-General from 2003 to 2007, for our seventh entry of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. 🌍🤝🌏
Ambassador Ong is a Singaporean diplomat who is the current Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Singaporean Ambassador to Iran since 2015. He was also the Singapore High Commissioner to Malaysia from 2011 to 2014. 🇸🇬
In this video, we have the honour to hear stories from Ambassador Ong about the history of the ASEAN region and its strengthened relations with the European Union.
We are honoured to listen to Ambassador Tommy Koh’s hopeful message on the deepening relations between ASEAN and the European Union for our eighth entry in the Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. 🌍🤝🌏
Prof. Koh is the Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore and the co-editor of the book ASEAN-EU Partnership: The Untold Story. He also considers himself a champion of the European Union in Singapore. 🇪🇺🇸🇬
In his video, Ambassador Koh expresses confidence in the youth, who he believes are relatively free from prejudices, and shares his hope of a future where the young people of the two regions see each other as equal brothers and sisters.
Meet Ms Shada Islam, Senior Policy Adviser to the European Policy Centre, as she discusses the evolving relationship between EU and ASEAN for our ninth entry of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. 🌍🤝🌏
Ms Islam is also the Founder of the New Horizons Project and Visiting Professor teaching Asia-Europe relations at the College of Europe in Natolin in Warsaw, Poland. In her video, she tackles the strategic relations of the two regions in addressing the wider geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic challenges together and how the cooperation of the two regions has helped in their respective regional development.
Make sure to follow our page to watch all episodes of The Road to 45 from May to August! 🗓️🔔 #EUinASEAN
For our 10th entry of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, let us hear from Mr. Xavier Nuttin, Senior Advisor of the European Institute of Asian Studies and the Vice-Chairperson of the Parliamentary Centre for Asia. 🌍🤝🌏
The European Institute of Asian Studies is a think tank based in Brussels, Belgium that focuses on the relations between the EU and Asia, including ASEAN. 🇧🇪 Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Centre for Asia is a new training institute based in Cambodia, that is aimed at training the staff of the parliaments of the ASEAN region in democracy and the working of the legislative process.
Mr. Nuttin previously worked in the Directorate General for External Affairs of the European Parliament where he covered Asia in the Policy department. In this video, Mr. Nuttin asserts that ASEAN and EU do not need to be the same as both have their own history and cultures.
Make sure to follow our page to watch all episodes of The Road to 45 from May to August! 🗓️🔔 #EUinASEAN
For the 11th episode of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, we are joined by Mr. Jan Willem Blankert, a Senior Fellow at the EU-Asia Centre and a former Special Adviser on ASEAN in the Delegation of the European Union in Jakarta, Indonesia. 🇪🇺🇮🇩
In the video, Mr. Blankert shares his experience in advocating for the political importance of ASEAN to Western countries. He also recalls how the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership strengthened the relations between the two regions. 🌍🤝🌏
Make sure to follow our page to watch all episodes of The Road to 45 from May to August! 🗓️🔔
Mr. Francisco Fontan gives us a deeper look at how the European Union decided to dedicate an ambassador to ASEAN in 2015 during the 12th episode of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years. 🌍🤝🌏
Mr. Fontan was the first dedicated EU 🇪🇺 Ambassador to ASEAN, appointed in July 2015 by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Before his stint as the EU Ambassador to ASEAN, the Spanish 🇪🇸 diplomat’s assignments include EU diplomatic representations to, among others, two ASEAN countries: in Viet Nam 🇻🇳 as the EU Delegation’s Deputy Head of Cooperation and in Indonesia 🇮🇩 as the Head of the Europe House in Banda Aceh. In this video, Francisco Fontan stresses the importance of the people-to-people element in strengthening EU-ASEAN relations. 🧑🤝🧑👭
Make sure to follow our page to watch all episodes of The Road to 45 from May to August! 🗓️🔔
For the 13th episode of The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, we are joined by Dr. Giulia Tercovich, Assistant Director of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) and Assistant Professor in International Affairs, Brussels School of Governance.
Dr. Tercovich was a participant of the EU-ASEAN Youth Leaders Forum in 2018 and shares her experience as a youth leader in the video.
Make sure to follow our page to watch all episodes of The Road to 45! 🗓️🔔
We cap off The Road to 45, a series of 14 testimonial videos featuring EU and ASEAN youth leaders and eminent persons who have contributed to this region-to-region partnership in the past 45 years, with our very own EU Ambassador to ASEAN Igor Driesmans!
Ambassador Driesmans has served as the EU Ambassador to ASEAN since 2019. He was previously a Member of the Cabinet of Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission.
The Belgian diplomat has been an official of the EU since 2003 and holds a Masters in History from the University of Gent in Belgium. 🇪🇺🇧🇪 In his video, Ambassador Driesmans discusses the huge significance ASEAN plays in the EU’s regional cooperation efforts. 🌍🤝🌏
Catch all the episodes of The Road to 45 on our social media channels on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram! 📱💻🔔