European finance ministers to skip ASEM meeting

European finance ministers to skip ASEM meeting

Agence France-Presse, Nusa Dua, Bali

An international grouping which strives for a balanced relationship between Europe and Asia will have a distinctly unbalanced look at a meeting starting here Saturday.

While most of the 10 Asian member states will send full ministers to the fifth ASEM finance ministers' meeting, only Austria among the 15 European Union states will send a minister, organizers said.

Deputy ministers or senior officials will fill in for the missing European ministers.

"This is unfortunate," said a European Union (EU) diplomat, speaking of the low-level representation from his side.

"The Asian side has complained in the past that Europeans have not always been represented at an adequate level."

He said the Bali meeting coincides with a meeting called by the finance ministry of Italy, which has just assumed the EU presidency.

The diplomat said the important test for ASEM (the Asia Europe Meeting) would be a get-together of its foreign ministers in Bali on July 23-24. "If the participation of Europe is not what we expect, there could be some complaints."

The ASEM process began in 1996.

Its origins, according to the ASEM webpage, "lay in a mutual recognition ... that the relations between our two regions needed to be strengthened, to reflect the increased importance of Asia on the world stage, and to move away from an 'aid and trade' relationship towards a more balanced relationship based on equal partnership."

Summits are held every two years and finance, economic and foreign ministers normally meet annually.

The agenda for this weekend's meeting covers topics such as prospects for the Asian, European and world economy, prospects for financial cooperation between the two regions and combating the financing of terrorism and money-laundering.

Senior officials from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Central Bank will join the closed-door talks.

Indonesia has put forward a "Bali initiative" under which the European and Asian parties would cooperate in training finance ministry and central bank staff.

"There are still problems in Asia's recovery after the (1997- 98) crisis but most countries are doing relatively well," the EU diplomat noted.

"Growth in Europe, however, is not very high and there is some risk of deflation in Europe."

He said the need for Asian nations to undertake structural financial sector reforms to achieve sustainable growth would also figure in the talks.

ASEM's Asian membership is made up of Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The 15 European Union members plus the European Commission make up the other side.