Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's first major task after taking office was to meet with senior ASEAN officials in early April, and he immediately linked the "Chinese Dream" to the "ASEAN Dream". To realize the two dreams, he said: "We need to work together, wish each other well and support each other."

What followed in the next few months was the gradual warming up of China-ASEAN relations after frayed tensions over the South China Sea disputes, which have dominated international news headlines. The recent decision of ASEAN and China to begin official negotiations over the long delayed code of conduct (COC) is a good barometer of their mutual comfort level and trust. The two sides also manifested the same determination to avoid holding their broader relations hostage to time-consuming and multi-faceted disputes.

At the April meeting, Wang described the ASEAN Dream as the full realization of the ASEAN community in 2015. He connected the grouping's community-building effort to China's own - the dual goals of becoming a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020 and "a strong, prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced society" by 2049 to mark the centenary of the People's Republic of China. When ASEAN was established in 1967, the grouping's founding fathers envisaged that the whole of Southeast Asia would come under one roof. Now that reality is within reach in less than 900 days, that is, by the end of 2015.

To fulfill the Chinese and ASEAN dreams, both sides will need to sustain continuous economic growth as well as maintain a stable and peaceful external environment. The ASEAN's economic growth, which has brought region-wide prosperity and integration, is linked to China's rapid economic rise. Their combined regional strength has served as a driving force for the overall economic development and integration of East Asia.

However, China and ASEAN are facing new challenges as their relations diversify and become more sophisticated. On their home fronts, too, there are stronger interactions between their domestic and immediately external environment.

China and ASEAN member states have their own constituencies and peculiarities, including different public and media perceptions about their relations. In the age of fast global shifts and expanding connectivity - not to mention increased national pride among East Asian countries - managing stable and rewarding cooperation without impinging on local conditions has remained at best difficult.

China-ASEAN relations are not immune to such dilemmas. Their leaders have to navigate more complicated bilateral and multilateral relations to avoid damages, real or imagined. Thanks to the so-called ASEAN+1 family, China and ASEAN have the most intensive cooperation with 12 ministerial meetings, the highest among all the dialogue partners.

Since 2002 China has been one of the top three trading partners of ASEAN, with two-way trade reaching $400 billion last year - it is expected to hit $500 billion in 2015 - from a meager $55 billion a decade ago. The upgrade of the ASEAN-China Free Trade agreement will further promote bilateral trade, which on average has increased by 20 percent a year, making ASEAN China's fastest growing trading group.

China is also promoting a tripartite free trade arrangement with Japan and South Korea. Despite showing some enthusiasm toward the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership in recent weeks, China's top priority is still the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, for which negotiations have already begun.

Last year, China-ASEAN relations reached an all-time low in terms of trust because of the disagreement over how best to proceed with the COC amid growing confrontation. Earlier, China's position was quite simple: the situation is not ripe for a COC. And the lack of progress on a COC trumped other positive aspects of their friendship.

However, with a new leadership in Beijing and a new ASEAN chair, Brunei, China and ASEAN have been able to overcome past mistrust. Brunei has forged a new consensus, painstakingly weaving the interests of ASEAN member states. Both sides will now start the COC drafting process.

Earlier, ASEAN wanted a draft that it had prepared with key points to be included in the COC before presenting it to China for comments and amendments, which for China was the most contentious issue. But now, instead of working unilaterally, China and ASEAN will work in tandem both at the official and informal levels.

The four meetings in the fall - two each in Bangkok and in Beijing - at working-group and ministerial levels will zero in on establishing a working modality. The forthcoming special ASEAN-China ministerial meeting, to be hosted by Beijing at the end of August to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership, will take a fresh look at China-ASEAN relations. This will set forth the direction of the COC process leading to the China-ASEAN senior officials' meeting on the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in Beijing in September.

It is interesting to see that give-and-take and more consultative endeavors have emerged in the past few months and are gaining strength after the release of the communiqu of ASEAN foreign ministers early this month, which touched on the situation in South China Sea. It stressed their common desire to see the COC process move forward.

Beyond the non-economic and social spheres, it remains to be seen how the Chinese and ASEAN dreams will interact and play themselves out at the regional level in reducing tensions further in a tangible way. After all, China and ASEAN share the same desire for peace and prosperity.

The author is assistant group editor of The Nation in Thailand.

(China Daily USA 07/17/2013 page12)