Brussels, 19/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The ASEM Summit of Heads of State and Governments from the Union and China is taking place on Tuesday in Copenhagen in a context of this year's closer relationship.
This meeting will be attended by the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji (this will therefore be one of the last official visits abroad before the new direction of the country in November),
should also highlight the convergence of opinions on several of the hot points of current world politics, including Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Europeans and Chinese hope, moreover, to be able to move forward on the sensitive issue of illegal immigration and tourist visas - and perhaps also de-fuse disputes lurking on the trade front. This gloomy side of relations will be entrusted, before the summit, to Commissioner Pascal Lamy and to his Chinese counterpart, Shi Guangsheng, who will no doubt speak of the restrictions imposed by both sides on imports of products of animal origin.
The summit's agenda also includes the following: - recent developments in China-Europe relations; - human rights and political dialogue, including Afghanistan, India-Pakistan tension, the Korean peninsula, non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament, and the fight against terrorism; - expanding relations and economic cooperation, as well as social reform (Doha Development Round, problems of implementing liberalisation commitments already taken by the developing countries at the World Trade Organisation, strengthening and development of dialogues and sectoral cooperation); - and strengthened cooperation between trans-national scourges (trade in human beings, environmental phenomena) and follow up action to the Johannesburg summit.