Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM)

Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM)
Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM)
	Partners of ASEM in blue
Establishment	1996
	Website; www.ASEMinfoboard.org

8th Asia–Europe Meeting Summit in 2010, Brussels, Belgium

The Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) was officially established in 1996 at the first summit in Bangkok, Thailand, as an exclusively Asian-European forum to enhance relations and various forms of co-operation between the then 15 members of the European Union (EU) and its Commission, the then 7 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the individual countries of China, Japan, and South Korea.^[1] A series of enlargements saw additional EU members join as well as India, Mongolia, Pakistan, and the ASEAN Secretariat in 2008,^{[citation needed]} Australia, New Zealand and the Russian Federation in 2010,^[2] Bangladesh, Norway, and Switzerland in 2012,^[3] Croatia and Kazakhstan in 2014.^{[citation needed]}

The main components of the ASEM process rest on the following 3 so-called pillars:

Political Pillar
Economical Pillar
Social, Cultural and Educational Pillar

In general, the process is considered by the parties involved to be a way of deepening the relations between Asia and Europe at all levels, which is deemed necessary to achieve a more balanced political and economic world order. The process is enhanced by the biennial meetings of Heads of State and Government, alternately in Europe and Asia, and biennial meetings of Foreign Ministers as well as political, economic, and socio-cultural meetings and events at various levels.

Members

ASEM currently has 53 partners: 51 countries and 2 regional organisations. The countries are Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Lao PDR, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam, while the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat are the regional organisations involved.

Meetings

ASEM Summits

The biennial Summits, attended by the Heads of State and Government of the respective members, have been held in:

ASEM11: 15-16 July 2016, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
ASEM10: 16–17 October 2014, Milan, Italy
ASEM9: 05–06 November 2012, Vientiane, Lao PDR
ASEM8: 04–05 October 2010, Brussels, Belgium
ASEM7: 24–25 October 2008, Beijing, China
ASEM6: 10–11 September 2006, Helsinki, Finland
ASEM5: 08–09 October 2004, Hanoi, Viet Nam
ASEM4: 22–24 September 2002, Copenhagen, Denmark
ASEM3: 20–21 October 2000, Seoul, Korea
ASEM2: 03–04 April 1998, London, United Kingdom
ASEM1: 01–02 March 1996, Bangkok, Thailand

ASEM Ministerial Meetings

Aside from Summits, regular Ministerial Meetings are held on foreign affairs, financial, cultural, educational, labor and employment, economic, environmental, or transport issues, attended by the relevant ministers: