Reorientation of EU relations with Asia

This paper will discuss what is driving the reorientation of EU relations with Asia. Given the poor relations of EU with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)-an organization with restricted powers, internal organizational problems that has complicated regional cooperation and as an extension cooperation with the EU- the discussion is confined to the reorientation of EU relations with South and North East Asia. Therefore, the paper will focus on EU relations with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three counties from North East Asia, China, Japan and South Korea, all of which are involved in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), which is considered to be the cornerstone of the EU engagement with East Asia.