SYDNEY, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Australia will host a special summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Sydney this weekend, the first such event in the country, with trade, business links and counter-terrorism expected to top the agenda.

Leaders from the 10 Southeast Asian member states will be hosted by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who called for the meeting at a biennial ASEAN-Australia Summit in Laos in 2016.

Australia started to hold dialogue with ASEAN in 1974. Over the past four decades, dramatic economic changes have taken place across the region and now ASEAN is collectively Australia's third largest trading partner behind China and the United States.

The relationship between the two sides has brought a number of achievements including the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement in 2010.

Already worth around 730 million U.S. dollars to the Australian economy last year, exports to Southeast Asia are continuing to grow rapidly with many economists viewing the region as a market with huge growth potential for Australia's resources and agricultural sectors.

"Overwhelmingly, it is a meeting about prosperity and security," Turnbull was quoted in an Australian newspaper on Thursday.