Brussels, 05/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on 4 and 5 October for the 8th Summit for Asia-Europe political dialogue (ASEM), the leaders of the EU, from the region of Asia (Burma/Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam for the ASEAN region, plus China, South Korea, India, Japan, Mongolia and Pakistan), and three countries now joining, Australia, New Zealand and Russia, agreed to reinforce their strategic partnership.
In a final joint declaration adopted on the eve of the G20 Summit in Seoul, the European and Asian leaders undertake to reinforce their cooperation to boost growth whilst reforming the global financial system, but failed to overcome their differences over monetary policy. Europeans and Asians confirmed “their ambition to modernise the governance of the IMF to improve its credibility, legitimacy and efficiency”. The emerging countries, including the Asian nations, led by China, which are under-represented at IMF level, are calling for a weighting which is more representative of their current economic muscle. “At least 5% of the quota shares of the IMF of the over-represented countries should be shifted to the emerging markets and developing countries using the current quota formula as the basis to work from”, states the final joint declaration of this 8th ASEM Summit, which also lays emphasis on the need to respond to other questions of governance, such as the question of an open, transparent and merit-based process to appoint the leaders of the financial institutions. The European and Asian leaders also called for “specific actions” to encourage more sustainable models of development, which are of benefit from the developing countries, and reduce their poverty, these actions including access to the market, cross-border investments, international assistance, actions on debt and technology transfers. Lastly, the parties reaffirm their trade commitments to “rapidly” conclude the Doha Round, reject protectionism and maintain the openness of the markets.
On the climate dossier, the convergence of views between the European and Asian partners has proven even more limited, with the forthcoming UN conference in Cancun looming. Although they “share the objective of urgently arriving at a binding, fair, effective and exhaustive result” over an international climate pact, the leaders were unable to agree on a deadline or timetable to achieve this. (E.H./trans.fl)