EU, ASEAN prepare ministerial meeting

EU, ASEAN prepare ministerial meeting

LISBON (AFP): Senior officials from EU and ASEAN member states were in talks on Monday in Portugal to prepare a meeting of foreign ministers from the two blocs later this year in Asia, a Portuguese EU presidency spokesman said.

If successful, the talks -- taking place in the seaside resort town of Estoril, near Lisbon -- will lead to the first EU-ASEAN foreign ministers' gathering since Singapore in 1997.

Portugal is hosting the talks on the last week of its six- month turn at the rotating EU presidency, which France takes up from Saturday.

Relations between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been under strain for several years, as the 15-nation European bloc protests against human rights abuses in Myanmar.