The Association of South-East Asian Nations and the European Union on Sunday vowed to deepen economic cooperation as ASEAN prepares to become a single market at the end of the year,dpa reported. The economy ministers of the 10-nation grouping and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom noted that trade between the two regional blocs expanded to 246.2 billion dollars in 2013, from 242.6 billion dollars the previous year. "The ministers and the EU trade commissioner were pleased with the growing momentum in economic cooperation, which contributed to the deepening of economic relations between the two regions," said a joint statement after the meeting ahead of the "ASEAN" leaders' summit in Kuala Lumpur. The ministers and Malmstrom endorsed a new trade and investment programme to expand cooperation. They also agreed to explore the possibility of resuming negotiations for an ASEAN-EU free trade agreement.
