摘要
Southeast Asian countries are overwhelmingly interested in close engagement with China. China was the first extra-regional country to sign the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation with ASEAN in 2003 and the first to sign a free trade agreement with the regional group in 2002. Current relations have featured high level contact through bilateral visits and strong delegation presence at the multilateral forums and meetings, a trend which has fostered close relations as well as facilitating a full range of exchange between Chinese and ASEAN leaders that has played a strategic leading role and normalized mechanisms By U Wynn Lwin for strategic communications. In many cases, meetings took place many times a year.
