Brussels, 25/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU foreign ministers will be meeting in Hamburg (Germany) on Monday and Tuesday (28-29 May) with their opposite numbers from the 16 Asian countries that make up ASEM: Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Members of ASEM now make up nearly 60% of the world's population and account for 60% of world trade. The agenda of the meeting, which is held every two years, covers points as varied as energy, climate change, dialogue (political, cultural and inter-faith) and the situation in Iraq, the Middle East or around the Korean peninsula.
Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who, like Javier Solana, will be attending the meeting, will announce the Commission's intention to establish a dialogue mechanism in the context of 2007-2013 support programmes for regional cooperation in Asia, a press release published on Friday explains. “This dialogue facility will permit deeper engagement and greater continuity in dealing with burning issues such as the environment, economic and financial matters, employment and social policy, and intercultural dialogue”, the press release reads.
As the Hamburg meeting draws near, Amnesty International calls on the EU to also address the issue of the death penalty and to seek to involve Asian countries in the efforts being made to have capital punishment abolished. “Asia is still the continent in the lead when it comes to executions. Hanging, execution by bullet or the administration of lethal injections are among the methods used by some of the countries taking part at the summit on 28 May”, the NGO states in a press release. China, where the exact number of executions was not revealed, states that at least 1,010 persons were executed in 2006 although the real number is closer to 8,000. Singapore is also pointed at as having one of the highest rates of execution per inhabitant in the world. Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam also continue to apply the death penalty, Amnesty International deplores, addressing a letter to the German EU presidency (available at: http: //http://www.amnesty-eu.org ). (hb)