About ASEM

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and co-operation addressing political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. The ASEM dialogue brings together the 27 European Union Member States and the European Commission with 16 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Within the process, ASEM has Summit meetings which is held every second year in Asia and Europe alternatively. This is the highest level of decision making in the process. ASEM (the Asia-Europe Meeting) Summit gathers the head of states and governments of the European countries & the European Commission, with their counterparts from Asian countries.

ASEM enlargements
• ASEM saw the first enlargement at its Fifth Summit in 2004 in Hanoi, where the ten new EU Member States (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and three new ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar) were officially parts of the process.
• Second round of enlargement in 2006 brought in Bulgaria, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Romania and the ASEAN Secretariat, increasing the grouping into a total of 45 partners.

ASEM summits
7 ASEM summits have been held every second year in Asia and Europe alternatively.
The first ASEM Summit started in 1996, Bangkok. The initial ASEM partnership consisted of 15 EU member states and 10 ASEAN member states plus China, Japan, Korea and European Commission.
The last ASEM Summit was organised in Beijing, 2008. It was the first gathering of the leaders of 45 ASEM partners since its second round of enlargement in 2006.
For ASEM 8, Belgium has offered to host it in 2010.
For more information visit website: http://www.aseminfoboard.org/

Pillars
As the informal process of dialogue and cooperation, ASEM activities can be grouped into three main "pillars": political, economic, and cultural/intellectual.

Political Pillar
Traditionally, the political dialogue is a key element of the ASEM process. High-level meetings held as part of ASEM, at Heads of State and Government as well as at Foreign Ministers levels, have allowed the development of a genuine dialogue on the main political issues of concern to ASEM partners. ASEM political pillar's activities focus on international crisis, security, multilateralism. In addition it seeks to open up the dialogue with policy-makers from Europe and Asia.

Economic Pillar
ASEM Summits are good avenues to reinforce the economic partnership between Europe and Asia. Discussions on the economic pillar of ASEM focusing on globalization, and sustainable development are always high on the agenda.
So far, ASEM economic dialogue and cooperation have been focusing on the need to better manage economic globalization by promoting multilateralism, enhancing business frameworks between the two regions, and developing innovative ideas in the field of finance, including promoting the role of the Euro. Hence, activities in the economic pillar have been designed to foster cooperation on the issues of reduction of barriers to trade and investment, on matters pertaining to financial and social policy reform, and to promote dialogue on issues relating to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Issues discussed at the Summits include trade facilitation and trade security, trade and development, regionalism and multilateralism, information and communication technology focusing on aspect of competition and liberalization, and investment issues.

Social, cultural, intellectual pillar
ASEM Summits called for the strengthening of cultural links between Asia and Europe, in particular closer people-to-people contacts, which are indispensable for the promotion of greater awareness and understanding between the two regions. By creating new personal links, ASEM will help overcome misperceptions that may exist, with a view to helping peoples to be more aware of the issues affecting our common future, and to better understand each other through dialogue. Mutual understanding will be further reinforced through cultural, artistic, educational activities and exchanges involving particularly youth and students of the two regions. Through a process of socialization, ASEM pillar 3 facilitates the building of common knowledge among ASEM partners. ASEM Summits are always seen as opportunities to deepen the dialogue on Cultures and Civilisations within ASEM, and to promote of education exchanges between the two regions through Asia-Europe Higher Education Exchanges.

Key Characteristics

Informality: It provides an open forum for policy makers and officials to discuss any political, economy and social issues of common interest. In this way, it complements rather than duplicates the work already being carried out in bilateral and multilateral fora;

Multi-dimensionality: It covers the full spectrum of relations between the two regions and devotes equal weight to political, economic and cultural dimensions;

Emphasis on equal partnership: It eschews any "aid-based" relationship taken forward under our bilateral relations in favour of a more general process of dialogue and co-operation based on mutual respect and mutual benefit;

Dual focus on high-level and people-to-people: It provides a platform for meeting of heades of states or governments, ministers and senior officials, and with an increasing focus on fostering contacts between societies in all sectors in the two regions.

Ministerial and working-level meetings
Apart from the Summit meetings, the ASEM process is carried forward through a series of Ministerial and working-level meetings, as well as a number of activities arising from this.

ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meetings are organised in the intervening years of the Summits. In addition to pursuing the ASEM dialogue under the first and third pillars (political dialogue, co-operation in other areas), the Foreign Ministers Meeting is also responsible for the overall coordination of the ASEM process. Reporting to Foreign Ministers, a Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) is held normally twice a year.

In addition to that, ASEM Finance Ministers' Meetings (FinMM) are also held to discuss financial matters and launch initiatives for both regions. Reporting to Finance Ministers, a Finance Deputies' Meeting has been held at irregular intervals. For co-ordination purposes, ASEM finance officials also meet regularly at a "Core Finance Group Meeting", held in Washington on the margins of the spring and autumn WB / IMF meetings.

In its effort to create a strong partnership in the growing economic links of the two regions, ASEM Economic Ministers' Meetings (EMM) are organised in traditionally every two years. A Senior Officials' Meeting on Trade and Investment (SOMTI) is held normally twice a year and is responsible to report to the Economic Ministers Meeting. Also in the economic field, an annual Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) has brought together private-sector representatives from the two regions. ASEM economic coordinators (currently Japan and Vietnam, plus EU Presidency and European Commission) also meet as and when required.

Other than the regular ministerial meetings, ASEM also holds ministerial conferences in other fields including Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology, Environment Ministers' Meeting (ENVMM), Ministerial Conference on Co-operation for the Management of Migratory Flows between Europe and Asia.

ASEM covers potentially all issues of common interest to Europe and Asia. ASEM has provided a dialogue platform to address international matters such as United Nations reforms, weapons of mass destruction issues, terrorism, migration flows or WTO negotiations.

ASEM has no Secretariat. Foreign Ministers and their senior officials (SOM) also have an overall coordinating role within the ASEM process, and are assisted in this by an informal group of Coordinators (two from the Asian side and two from the European side).

The only existing ASEM institution is the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), an international not-for-profit foundation, charged with promoting cultural, intellectual and people-to-people contacts between the two regions.