ASEM takes off
ASEM takes off
The foundation for greater Asia-Europe cooperation has been established. The leaders from 10 Asian and 15 European Union countries, who concluded their first summit meeting between the two regions in Bangkok over the weekend, should be commended for initiating the new forum. Credit must also be given to the host country, Thailand, whose diplomatic skills contributed greatly to the success of the first Asia-Europe meeting (Asem).
Given the widely differing conditions of the seven participating ASEAN members, Japan, South Korea and China as well as the 15 European Union members, the smoothness of the summit proceedings is in itself a great achievement. Despite the name of the meeting, it was not the gathering of two parties but of 25 sovereign nations in different stages of economic development and with varying political aspirations. Even the members of an economically-integrated European Union do not always share a common position on all issues.
The success of the summit might be attributable to the willingness of the leaders to sideline the potentially contentious issues and limit their discussions to mutually beneficial economic cooperation in the areas of trade and investment. More intensive political dialog can be phased in when the process matures and the participants have developed a stronger rapport. A follow-up mechanism that is not too bureaucratic or rigid has already been set up.
The chairman of the meeting, Thailand's Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa, stated the basic principles of dialog to be mutual respect, equality, promotion of fundamental rights in accordance with the rules of international laws and regulations and non- intervention. We agree that these principles will be most effective in ensuring more meaningful dialog among the 25 countries.
By focusing on broad economic issues, the meeting addressed the most common interests of all participating countries. The leaders avoided outlining specific, detailed programs, which are subject to competing interests, and discussed the establishment of a market economy, an open multilateral trading system, non- discriminatory liberalization and open regionalism.
The leaders will gather every two years -- Britain will hold the second in 1998 and South Korea the third in 2000 -- while their senior officials and ministers will meet between summits.
Encouraging also were the concrete measures agreed upon to set the process in motion. An Asia-Europe Business Forum, scheduled for this year, the drafting of an investment promotion plan and a meeting of economic ministers next year are all realistic steps towards the forging of strategic economic linkages between the two continents.