Brussels, 03/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The main result expected at the 12th Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on 5-6 November is that of building consensus for an ambitious and binding international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions - ahead of the UN climate conference (COP 21) in Paris in December.
The ASEM meeting will be chaired by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, under the auspices of Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, and will prepare the 11th ASEM summit. ASEM will celebrate its 20th anniversary in Ulan Bator (Mongolia) in July 2016.
The ASEM meeting will be divided into two plenary working sessions on Thursday, followed by a “retreat session” on Friday, where regional and international issues will be discussed informally.
The first working session will be given over to climate change, sustainable development and the management and reduction of risks of disaster. The second working session will focus on connectivity between Europe and Asia across a range of sectors, and on the future of ASEM.
The retreat session will give the parties the opportunity to speak freely about two current issues requiring a global response - migration and the fight against terrorism and extremism. The session will also enable discussion of the crisis in regions situated in the ASEM area (Iraq, Syria and the Middle East) as well as discussion of conflicts involving many ASEM countries (East Ukraine, the Korean peninsula, and territorial conflicts in the South China Sea or East China Sea).
A statement from Mogherini is expected at the end of the meeting. A large number of bilateral meetings are due to take place on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting.
Alongside this ASEM meeting, three events are being organised in Luxembourg by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) - the ASEF young leaders' summit, under the theme “Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment”, on 1-5 November; a photo exhibition on Asia and Europe, entitled “On the Go”, to be inaugurated on 4 November; and an ASEF journalists' colloquium focusing on crisis reporting, on 4-6 November.
Created in 1996 at the Bangkok summit, ASEM is an inter-regional forum bringing together the European Commission and 28 EU member states plus Norway and Switzerland on one side, and the members of the ASEAN area on the other (Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) plus its secretariat, as well as Australia, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, India, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia and South Korea. ASEM accounts for 60% of the world's GDP and population. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)