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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Southeast Asian nations and the European Union agreed Friday to start free trade talks, a breakthrough after more than two years of wrangling over military-ruled Myanmar's poor human rights record, a senior official said.
The decision was made in Brunei where economic ministers of the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with their counterparts from Europe and Japan, said ASEAN secretary-general Ong Keng Yong. The two-day meeting ended Friday.
"We agreed to launch ASEAN-EU FTA negotiations. We will establish a joint working committee to work on this. They will address all thorny issues," Ong told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Brunei's capital Bandar Seri Begawan.
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