Brussels, 25/07/2014 (Agence Europe) -“Responsible partnership for sustainable growth and security” - this is the theme of the tenth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit that Europe will host in Milan on 16-17 October, which will be attended by numerous heads of state from the two continents. Under the auspices of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU, the summit will be chaired by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, with outgoing President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso alongside him.
Besides strengthening their economic and trade interdependence, which is already solid between the two regions, the EU expects the Milan summit to stimulate closer cooperation on the security challenges faced by both continents. Van Rompuy gave a foretaste of the message he will deliver in Milan when he attended a conference in Brussels on Tuesday 16 September on Asia-Europe relations
“I am convinced, more than ever, that the welfare and future of Europe requires the stability and economic dynamism of Asian societies. Asian markets offer incomparable investment and trade opportunities for European companies. Asian growth has helped fuel the world economy when Europe has been struggling with fiscal stability and low growth rates. At the same time, Europe continues to be a primary export market for Asia and a source of technological innovation. Our economies are as interdependent as ever and while Europe is fighting to overcome structural challenges inherent to mature societies and highly developed economies, many Asian nations need to revise their growth model as well in order to adapt it to the rapid and radical transformation their societies have experienced”, Van Rompuy stated.
“But our interdependency goes way beyond economic ties. Our security is interlinked. We also face common challenges, such as fighting religious extremism and terrorism, and only joining forces and communicating together on these issues will we achieve success”, Van Rompuy continued. “It is in this broad context of EU-Asia relations that we have to examine and appreciate ASEM's role. There is no sustainable growth without security, and no security without sustainable growth. While we here worry about tensions around maritime and territorial disputes in Asia, our Asian partners are worrying about strife in our own neighbourhood, be it Ukraine, in Syria or Iraq, or more broadly in the Middle East, to name a few. These conflicts are not isolated, they have repercussions on our respective regions. Stability needs respect for international law and privileging cooperation and dialogue over predominance”, he concluded.
Created in 1996 at the Bangkok summit, ASEM is an interregional forum that brings together, on the one side, the European Commission and the 28 EU member states and, on the other side, the ten member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN - Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietham), plus the ASEAN secretariat, China, Japan and South Korea, along with Mongolia, India and Pakistan. At the 2010 summit in Brussels, Australia, New Zealand and Russia became members of the organisation.
In 2012, the Vientiane summit in Laos ratified the accession of three new members - Bangladesh, Norway and Switzerland. The Milan summit will ratify the arrival of two new members - Croatia and Kazakhstan (the first country from Central Asia to have requested membership). (EH)