Understatssekreterare Laajava: Europas strategi för nordöstra Asien - partnerskap för ökad säkerhet och stabilitet

Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS)
Söul, Sydkorea
30 mars 2004



Understatssekreterarens tal på engelska


Mr. Chancellor,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


It is a great honor for me to address this distinguished audience today at the renowned Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

My main theme today is partnership and how to enhance it between Europe and Northeast Asia.

Europe, the European Union and Northeast Asia

Europe and Northeast Asia are located at opposite ends of the huge Eurasian continent, geographically divided by the Ural Mountains, but increasingly interconnected through the "Eurasian Land Bridge".

On May 1, the European Union (the EU) will be enlarged to include 25 countries with a population of more than 450 million. The enlarged EU will account for a quarter of the global GNP.

While the EU is growing, so is this region. Northeast Asia is an increasingly important partner to the EU. This region constitutes one of the power centres of the world with three major global and regional powers (China, Japan, Russia) and the political and military presence of the United States. The Korean Peninsula and Mongolia included, Northeast Asia has a population and economic potential roughly comparable in scale to that of the European Union.

While growth, dynamism and increasing prosperity characterize the region, politically the situation in Northeast Asia, particularly on the Korean peninsula, remains a source of concern for the international community. Problems relating to WMD proliferation and unresolved post-world war issues pose a challenge to international security. Any major conflict - not necessarily military - in this region would raise serious questions for the whole international system, including the world financial system.

Economic interaction between Europe and Northeast Asian countries is growing fast. This increase is not due only to the pull of the ever-expanding Chinese markets. For example, regarding this country, the European Union has recently emerged as the largest foreign investor in the Republic of Korea. In 2003, the EU accounted for more than USD 3 billion (3 061 million) in direct investments, that is 47 per cent of the total amount of foreign direct investments received by this country. The EU Chamber of Commerce in Korea has more than 700 members – i.e. European companies that have an established presence here.

Correspondingly, Korean companies are increasing their presence in Europe. To mention just one example, the biggest Korean car maker has recently announced that it will be opening a new plant in Slovakia. This will mean the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars into just one European country.

Political situation in Northeast Asia and the EU's foreign policy and security strategy

The European Union is actively following current developments in Northeast Asia in general, and on the Korean peninsula in particular.

It is evident that the pending political issues in Northeast Asia can only be resolved by the countries of region themselves. However, if desired, the third parties should be ready to contribute to the process of peace, security and cooperation.

Is the European Union capable of doing that? Can the EU be counted as a responsible partner? My answer would be: increasingly yes. First, there is a new realization in Europe that the European Union greatly benefits from the process of globalization. For us, strengthening security, enhancing stability and providing more overall predictability in world affairs is important. Consequently, we must be able to assist in shaping that kind of environment and to shoulder our share of wider responsibilities of security, prosperity and peace in the world.

The second thing is the realization that we need to have the tools available to fulfil our international role.

This change of attitude has not happened overnight.

As most of you know, the European Union is neither a federal state nor an intergovernmental organisation in the traditional sense. It is a specific kind of actor that, on the basis of its long experience about economic and political integration gathers together the civilian and military instruments that may be useful in resolving crisis situations in various parts of the world.

The idea that the European Union should speak with one voice in world affairs is as old as the European integration process itself. But the reality is that the Union has made remarkable progress in creating a single market and a single currency but less progress in forging a common foreign policy.

And it is true that due to the need to deepen our integration, our attention has quite often been focused on our internal matters, not on the outside world.

Now this is gradually changing.

For the first time, Europe has now its own Security Strategy. When EU Heads of State and Government adopted the strategy in December 2003 they endorsed a distinctive and coherent European vision of the world. The strategy commits the EU to become a more active, a more capable and a more coherent global actor.

Within the on-going negotiations concerning the Union’s new Constitutional Treaty, new ideas on how to implement that strategy have surfaced. For instance, it seems that the majority of member States would like to see the EU’s own Foreign Minister, speaking on our behalf, appear on the world scene. The member states would also like to extend the majority voting rule to the practical foreign policy decisions. The EU is also developing significantly its crisis management capability, both civilian and military.

These changes are important but to implement a strategy aiming at a more secure and democratic world one needs partners. The EU would like to work with other nations. We believe that a more united world can only be achieved through effective multilateralism. This is why the development of a stronger international community, a stronger and more effective United Nations, well-functioning international institutions and a rule-based international order remain the priority objectives of the European Union.

The EU and the six-party talks

The European Union supports efforts for a peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue and follows closely the six-nation talks about the situation on the Korean peninsula.

How could the EU be helpful in this regard? What could the Europeans do in order to assist in the search for responses to present and future challenges facing Northeast Asia? The EU does, in fact, already have an active multilateral role in Northeast Asia in the form of its membership in the Board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization KEDO.

If desired, the EU could take part in subsequent endeavours connected with the six-party talks. The EU could focus, inter alia, on economic, security and nuclear disarmament issues.

The EU pursues an active, relevant and hopefully constructive multilateral role in Northeast Asia primarily in several areas of economy such as transportation and energy, as well as in environmental issues.

The EU established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 2001. The EU and its individual member states have been stepping up their contacts with North Korea to encourage its engagement in international cooperation. Almost all EU member states now have established diplomatic relations with the DPRK.

The cautious economic reforms towards market economy mechanisms that North Korea initiated in summer 2002, and the potential opening-up of the country may offer concrete opportunities also for the EU to develop economic relations with the DPRK as well as to support its entry into the international cooperation, after the nuclear issue has been satisfactorily resolved.

Recent developments in Northeast Asia and the EU's partnership

South Korea, Japan and the United States are traditional partners of the European Union. China's economic growth has made it an increasingly important player and partner of the EU in Northeast Asia. The EU and China have a common interest to work together to promote global stability, peace and sustainable development.

Russia's declining role in Northeast Asia has recently been revitalized by its participation in the six-party talks. Russia is of course simultaneously a neighbor of this region and neighbor of the European Union.

While bilateral relations have been important for the Northeast Asian region and certainly continue to be such, there are only limited efforts that take place within a multilateral framework. The only multilateral security mechanism in which the EU also is a partner, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), albeit important as such, does not fill this vacuum. Yet, multilateralism could be beneficial in the longer run as a method to increase transparency and predictability, to provide a level playing field where the participants would more clearly recognize their own responsibility to solve outstanding problems jointly. The six-party talks, and the working groups to be established after the second round of talks, might indicate the emergence of some kind of nucleus that could pave the way towards a wider multilateral security dialogue in Northeast Asia.

European multilateral experiences in security issues and Northeast Asia

The Cold War divided Europe for many decades. The Iron Curtain prevented normal contacts and communication between the two halves of the continent for a long time. And yet, progress was possible. Europe is again becoming free, united and at peace.

In fact, many experts and politicians in this region have wanted to understand how such a tremendous change became possible in Europe. At least two major developments come to mind, first the efforts during the post-war and post-Cold War period in Europe towards multilateral security arrangements on one hand, and economic integration on the other.

Many Korean experts have studied the question whether some sort of CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) process in Northeast Asia could be initiated. It has been considered whether some experiences, particularly from the early CSCE/Helsinki process in 1969-75, could be applied to the present situation in this region, not only in Korea but also more widely in Northeast Asia.

Of course, circumstances are entirely different, and there must be no illusions in Europe about giving advice on how things should be done in Northeast Asia. However, the six-party talks, whatever their immediate and short-term outcome, might theoretically be regarded as an initial stage preceding a wider consultation process relating to questions of security and cooperation in Northeast Asia. This is how the CSCE process started, as a kind of multilateral consultation/negotiation process, to include on an equal and uncommitted basis all countries concerned, large and small. An essential element in this process was the need to promote cooperation among nations and among people which lowered barriers of various kinds.

Finland is remembered as the host of the Helsinki Summit in 1975 and the signing of the Helsinki Final Act by 33 European states, the United States and Canada.

The CSCE process paved the way at least to some degree to the ultimate European post-war goals attained in the late 1980s: the reunification of Germany and the end of the division of Europe, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Roots of economic integration in Europe

The South Korean government's present policy for dialogue, peace and prosperity is based on an idea of developing in Northeast Asia a regional community "like the European Union", thus engendering "the Age of Northeast Asia".

Circumstances are very different and Europe could not serve as a model for regional cooperation in Northeast Asia. Nevertheless, some Europe's post-war experiences, leading to the present level of integration, might be interesting in this respect.

The EU was established in 1957 as the European Economic Community (EEC), as much for political and security reasons as to energize economic development. The political reasons can be summarized as preventing war ever breaking out again in Europe between Germany and France. This policy has proved successful now for over half a century.

Integration is a slow process that requires a lot of compromises and a continuous search for common interests.

The fact however is that in our globalized world, mutual interdependence grows fast. It might speed up efforts to enhance regionalism and regional integration.

One of the main elements in this process has to do with communications.

Europe - Northeast Asia transportation links

The symbolic reconnection of the Trans-Korean railways on 14 June 2003, after half a century, in the midst of the escalating nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, opens up interesting and promising future visions and options. While many difficulties still lie ahead, the relevant Governments have clearly recognized their concrete long-term interest in reconnecting the Trans-Korean railway in the future to Euro-Asian railway networks, utilizing existing transport corridors through China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Russian 100-year-old Trans-Siberian railway.

This "Iron Silk Road" could become a further symbol for Europe-Asia relations and cooperation, particularly in the framework of Europe – Asia meetings at various levels, the so-called ASEM process.

South Korea and Finland will co-chair an ASEM "Iron Silk Road" Symposium in Seoul this coming June, subject to approval by the ASEM Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Dublin in April. Participants from ASEM countries, relevant non-ASEM countries and international organizations will study the present Eurasian rail networks and their future. Particular attention will be paid to the possibility of opening the "Iron Silk Road" from Europe across the Eurasian continent up to the Korean Peninsula. The implementation of this rail connection would result in a drastic reduction of costs and transportation time.

This is not merely a vision. Every day, freight trains from Finland cross the huge landmass of Siberia up to the Port of Vladivostok. From Vladivostok, cargo vessels transport containers up to the port of Busan on the southernmost tip of South Korea. The journey takes altogether 16 days, less than half the time by sea routes. One day we may travel by train from Busan to Helsinki, directly.

North Korea, too, is invited to the Iron Silk Road Symposium. We look forward to the participation of North Korean experts also in the symposium in Seoul.

The Trans-Korean railway is first and foremost a highly important confidence and security building measure between the two Korean states and could offer an opportunity to the international community to promote peaceful development on the Korean Peninsula.

The future of the EU - Northeast Asia relations

Northeast Asia, particularly the Korean peninsula, is a good example of a region where the European Union could be an active partner and catalyst for peaceful regional development.

The most important tenet of the EU is its economic capacity. The EU, and Europeans in general, are willing to contribute particularly to the development of economic relations between the two regions.

Yet, our partnership should not end there.

For its part, the Europeans look forward to building the future European - Northeast Asian relations in all fields, on the foundations of deepening partnership and with the aim of strengthening security and stability, not only in this region but also globally. Finland, too, as an active member of the European Union, will be part of this effort.

Thank you.