11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting Takes Off in India
Cambodia News & New Youth Correspondent
Delhi-NCR, India (11 November, 2013): The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Monday opened its two-day forum called the 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) – India’s largest and the world’s second largest home with more than 22 million population – to focus on “ASEM: Bridge to Partnership for Growth and Development”.
Speaking in his opening remarks, Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari said ASEM can lead the way amongst the numerous multilateral frameworks that exist today to respond to common challenges at the regional and global levels.
The world is facing with a degree of unprecedented sophistication in non-traditional security threats which transcend national borders and traditional response patterns and necessitate greater cooperation, the strategic importance of the Asia-Europe partnership is evident, Ansari said.
According a statement posted on ASEM’s website, the 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in addition to pursuing the ASEM dialogue under the first and third pillars (political dialogue, co-operation in other areas), is responsible for the overall coordination of the ASEM process.
The ASEM is an intergovernmental forum for dialogue and cooperation established in 1996 to deepen relations between Asia and Europe, which addresses political, economic and socio-cultural issues of common concern.
ASEM has 51 members: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Viet Nam, the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat.