ASEM Foreign Ministers meet to further Asia-Europe relations

The 8th ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be held in Hamburg on 28-29 May 2007. Foreign Ministers or their representatives from 43 Asian and European ASEM countries, as well as the Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner and ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong as well as the High Representative Javier Solana will attend the meeting which takes place every two years. Participants will discuss a wide range of issues from developments in Iraq and the Middle East to broader issues such as energy and climate change, and cultural and interfaith dialogue.

Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner will announce the Commission's intention to establish a Dialogue Facility as part of the 2007 - 2013 support programmes for regional cooperation in Asia: "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. It will provide more opportunities to learn from each other's experience. Given the tremendous contribution ASEM made to deepening Asia-Europe relations in the past ten years, I am convinced of the added value of ASEM as an extraordinary multilateral forum for the further development of our relationship."

The Hamburg meeting will be the first Foreign Ministers' Meeting since the decision taken by the last ASEM Summit in Helsinki to admit India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Romania and the ASEAN Secretariat as new ASEM partners. Through this historic opening towards South Asia, ASEM's membership now encompasses nearly 60% of the world's population and 60% of world trade. This reinforces ASEM's role as the primary forum for Asia-Europe relations and its capacity to influence the global agenda.

The 2006 ASEM Summit in Helsinki marked the 10th anniversary of ASEM and set out the roadmap for the second decade. This includes strengthening multilateralism and addressing global threats, globalization and competitiveness, sustainable development and intercultural and interfaith dialogue. ASEM initiatives range from informal seminars on human rights to working group meetings on intellectual property or standards and conformity assessment. The Foreign Minister's meeting will also begin the preparations for the next ASEM Summit to be held in Beijing in October 2008.

China, Brunei Darussalam, the EU Presidency and the European Commission are the four ASEM Coordinators.

For further information:
http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/asem/intro/index.htm

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