With the Commonwealth Games to open around the same time, Vice President Hamid Ansari will represent India at the Eighth Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit beginning in Brussels from Monday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had attended the previous ASEM summit in Beijing two years ago, which was the first for India.
Beginning as a dialogue forum between the European Union\European Commission and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), ASEM broadened into a stage for interaction between Europe and Asia by including six countries from the North East and South Asia, of which India is one.
Of the 16 Asian states, some such as Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines are not being represented by their heads of government\state. The Prime Ministers of Japan and China are slated to attend while Pakistan will be represented by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
This summit, like the previous one, will see the addition of more members — Australia, New Zealand and Russia — to provide representation to the Asia Pacific and Eurasia. This will be the first international outing for recently elected Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Briefing newspersons here on Friday, Secretary (East) Latha Reddy underlined the importance of the meeting by pointing out that this was the only forum for exclusive dialogue between Asia and Europe. “The rationale [for setting up ASEM] is to balance the relationship between the three engines of growth. The United States and Europe have strong transatlantic links while the U.S. talks to Asia through the Asia Pacific Economic Community. This was the missing link.”
The main theme of the meeting will be the international economic and financial crisis.
It will also discuss climate change and ways to strengthen the multilateral trade system. The meeting will be chaired by President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy.
On Monday, the leaders will address “priority number one” — moving towards more effective global financial and economic governance. A separate declaration — “towards more effective global economic governance” — is expected to be adopted at the end of the summit, said Ms. Reddy. The other important subject — advancing on the path of sustainable development — will be addressed during their second session on the second day.
