Abstract

This chapter examines the EU’s engagement with the Asia Pacific by focusing on four regional organizations, ASEAN, and related fora: the ARF and ASEM, SAARC, APEC and PIF. The nature and progress of the EU’s engagements differ. The variation demonstrates that the degree of institutionalization and regionbuilding of its counterpart heavily impacts the EU’s approach. It also points to the difficulties the EU experiences in trying to adapt and maintain a one size fits all approach. While consistency and coherence are desirable, to a large extent success will be dependent on the capacity of the counterpart, which explains the geometry of the EU’s engagements with the Asia Pacific region.