This weekend's ASEAN meetings in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi are vital for this region. But they are also very important for the ties between ASEAN's 10 countries and the 28 countries of the European Union.

The relationship between our regions is an essential one. The European Union is still today the world's largest economy. But the rise of Asia is the most important economic and political story of our time. And the countries of ASEAN are playing a central part in that rise.

As a result, ASEAN, taken together, is the European Union's third trading partner outside Europe. And, if we exclude ASEAN's internal trade, the EU is this region's second largest partner, after China but before Japan and the United States. But we need to make this relationship even stronger.

I became EU Trade Commissioner in November last year, convinced that one of my central priorities will be to reinforce Europe's trade ties with Asia. In this regard, I see it as a clear goal to create a free trade zone between the European Union and ASEAN. We should get rid of tariffs and free up services, investment and procurement markets. We should set up strong common rules in areas like intellectual property, investment protection and sustainable development. This would strengthen the economy and business environment on both sides. But as we have seen in the past, negotiating a modern and ambitious region-to-region free-trade agreement is a challenging task. Thus, we need to make sure we get it right.

Therefore, I have this weekend suggested to my ASEAN colleagues that our senior officials meet before the end of the year to see how we can take this process forward.

Overall, the political leadership on both sides now has a responsibility to work towards deepening our economic ties. That's happening in three ways:

First, I have been/am (depending on publishing date) in Kuala Lumpur this weekend for an annual meeting on trade with ASEAN Economic Ministers. It is a longstanding and useful tradition that I am very happy to continue in my first year as EU Trade Commissioner.

Second, ASEAN is working to establish the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of the year  freeing up the movement of goods, services, capital and labour between its 10 member countries.

But the creation of the Community is not only an important step towards closer integration in South East Asia. It will also deepen this region's ties with us in Europe.

The European Union knows from experience that a more integrated market here in ASEAN is also an advantage for our exporters and investors in this region. The creation of the European Single Market in the 1990s was not only a huge step for Europeans. It also benefitted our trading partners because it was suddenly so much easier to do business with our continent as a unified bloc. That is why we expect that a deepened ASEAN community will also create prosperity back in Europe.

Our experience also means that European Union understands the challenges ASEAN is facing. Building a closer union is not easy. We have been working on it for 60 years and we are still not finished. For that reason, the European Union is a strong supporter of ASEAN's work, while fully respecting the unique "ASEAN way" of working together.

The third way, as I've mentioned,  in which we are deepening our ties is by building a zone of free trade between our two regions. This is our longstanding ambition. The first talks to negotiate a broad agreement between ASEAN and the European Union were launched in 2007. It was subsequently decided to pursue negotiations between individual ASEAN countries and the EU, and last year we concluded a highly ambitious free trade agreement with Singapore, marking an important reference point for negotiations with other ASEAN members. This year we hope to conclude a second ground-breaking agreement with Vietnam, which is one of the region's most populous and fastest growing economies. We are also talking to other ASEAN Member countries to assess the next steps forward with them.

The realisation of the ASEAN Economic Community offers us a good opportunity to consider how deeper economic integration within the region can support our objective of a free trade agreement between ASEAN and the EU.. At the same time, we will assess how bilateral free trade agreements between the EU and individual ASEAN countries can become the building blocks of such a region-to-region agreement.

This is an ambitious agenda of cooperation and negotiation. But in a world where the connections between economies are just as important as the transactions within them, those efforts are worth it. If we want a prosperous future for South East Asia and for Europe, we must work together to achieve it.

Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade