5 november 2012

Dmitry Medvedev attends Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit

Participants:

The ninth two-day ASEM Summit opened in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Before the summit opening, the heads of the delegations of the member states posed for a group photo.

Dmitry Medvedev attended the first plenary session of the summit.

 

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was established in March 1996 at the founding summit in Bangkok. It currently comprises more than 50 member states, including 30 in the European group and 21 in the Asian group. Norway, Switzerland and Bangladesh joined the ASEM this year.

The ASEM is an open, informal inter-regional platform for dialogue in which the member states co-operate in the political, security, financial, economic, social and cultural spheres. The agenda includes such items as the global financial and economic crisis, standing up to existing and new threats and challenges, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, energy security, sustainable development, climate change, environment, promotion of cultural ties, etc.

ASEM summits are convened every two years, alternately in Asian and European countries. Meetings of foreign ministers take place between summits.

The Declaration on Closer Economic Partnership in the ASEM and the Declaration on the Dialogue of Cultures and Civilisations was signed at the fifth ASEM Summit (Hanoi, October 2004).

The ASEM delegates decided in May 2005 at a ministerial meeting in Kyoto, Japan to create a virtual ASEM secretariat as a website.

ASEM’s intercultural and inter-civilisational dialogue was named as a major priority at the sixth ASEM Summit (September 10-11, 2006, Helsinki). Accordingly, holding the next ASEM Interfaith Dialogue in China and the meeting of ASEM Culture Ministers in Malaysia in 2007 were deemed important.

The focus on the sixth ASEM Summit, held in Beijing on October 24-25, 2008, was issues related to the global financial crisis, energy, food security, environment, natural disasters and the eradication of poverty. The summit delegates signed the ASEM Statement on the International Financial Situation, the ASEM Chairman’s Statement and the Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Development.

Russia joined the ASEN during the eighth summit in Brussels on October 4-5, 2010.

A coordinator committee manages ASEM activities, and it includes two representatives from the European group – the European Commission (Resident Coordinator) and the current Chairman of the European Union, and the Asian group – ASEAN member states (elected for two years) and a subgroup of the Northeast and South Asia (elected for one year). Currently, the coordinators of the European group are the European Commission and Cyprus, while Laos and Pakistan represent the Asian group. All decisions are made by consensus.

ASEM initiated the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) – ASEM’s only permanent body, established to finance projects for developing humanitarian and inter-cultural exchanges.