No. 2, April 2001: ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Beyond 2001
by R. James Ferguson
| Description:
The Asia-Europe Meeting is a partly institutionalised dialogue process focused around major meetings the occur every two years, supplemented by more specialised meetings of ministers and committees. Comprising the 15 states of the European Union, the European Commission and 10 East Asian nations, the ASEM can be viewed either as a multilateral process or as a loose trans-regional process that engages Europe and much of East Asia. (1) It is a dialogue and consensual organisation, with special concern given to the interests of the European and Asian regional groupings within the organisation. It has aimed to boost economic, political, security and cultural understanding between Asia and Europe. |
Background: The ASEM meeting grew out of complex diplomacy among several states from 1989-1994 which tried to focus on the rich opportunities of greater connectivity between Asia and Europe once the Cold War had ended. The meeting could also be seen as a hedge against growing U.S. unilateralism and economic power,(2) as well as a recognition of the great importance in global trade of the Asia-Pacific region. Partly hindered by limited discourse on human rights, by limited membership, and by the downturn in some Asian economies following the 1997 financial crisis, ASEM managed to reinvigorate itself through the 2000 meeting in Seoul, moving towards the more robust Asia-Europe Co-operation Framework (AECF) 2000. The organisation has moved to encourage investment, boost trade, enhance cultural and educational understandings, as well as begin dialogue on security and human rights issues. |
| Current Members:
* 15 Members of the EU (prior to expansion)
Prospective Future Members: Expansion will need to be considered (1) after 2002, especially
in relation to:
- AustraliaKey Meetings and Institutions: ASEM Meeting of Leaders: 1996 (Bangkok) 1998 (London), 2000 (Seoul), 2002 (Copenhagen) ASEM Meeting of Foreign Ministers Asia-Europe Business Forum Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Asia-Europe University Program Asia-Europe Environmental Technology Centre (AEETC) Parallel Processes: ASEAN-EU Dialogue, suspended after 1997due to expansion of ASEAN to include Myanmar (Burma), but trade negotiations through 2000-2001 between Myanmar and the EU, and Myanmar's recent UN human rights dialogue may changes this. Key Bilateral Dialogues and business relations between Asian and European nations including: - China-EU official dialogueMajor Problems and Challenges: - The problem of selective but balanced expansion
1. HWEE, Yeo Lay " ASEM: Looking Back, Looking Forward",
Contemporary
Southeast Asia, 22 no. 1, (April 2000), pp113-144; FERGUSON, R. James
“Shaping New Relationships: Asia, Europe and the New Trilateralism”, International
Politics, 4, (January 1998), pp1-21.
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Analysis
Improving Diplomacy 1998-2001: The ASEM2 meeting, held in London in April 1998, continued with all the courtesy and fireworks of the first meeting, with most agendas proposed in 1996 being followed through. Efforts were made to deepen the engagement of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) between the two regions, efforts to boost infrastructure investment in Asia, the setting up of an Asia-Europe Vision Group to guide ASEM into the next century, and deepening cooperation on drug control, environmental problems, and technological cooperation. (3) However, one of the disappointments for some of the Asian delegates was the inability, or unwillingness, of the European delegates to provide for extra direct aid for economies which had been severely battered in the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea. Most EU delegations referred these efforts to existing organisations including the IMF and World Bank. This problem would only begin to be seriously addressed in meetings of ASEM finance ministers in January 1999, though efforts to support some sort of financial control mechanism have not reached fruition.(4) China, in particular, still hoped that the dialogue with Europe could help transfer technology and develop cooperation to form a more stable world economy. In general, the Asia-Europe relationship is a pivotal inter-regional relationship. As noted by Christopher Dent: - If one particular point has been stressed . . . it is that the EU-East Asia economic relationship has become one of the most important structural features of the world economy. While this relationship remains the weakest Triadic link, . . . the continued expansion of the EU-East Asia economic ties is to be anticipated. Powers from both regions should also be expected to undertake more definitive responsibilities in shaping the new economic order of the twenty-first century. Thus, the future evolution of the EU-East Asian economic relations has important regional and global significance. (5)If anything, Europe will be more important to the Asian economies with the development of the unified European currency, the Euro, which the EU hopes will become a major investment currency. Through early 2001, Europe promoted the Euro as a worthwhile investment currency, as well as suggesting ways that Asian nations could benefit from European experience in 'currency pegs' and exchange rate systems to strengthen their own currencies. (6) These issues indicate that the ASEM process, though having useful initiatives, is far from routine or effortless. (7) The 2000 ASEM meeting focused on a number of issues designed to revitalise the ASEM process in practical undertakings: The 26 leaders attending the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Seoul were poised on 21 October to agree no fewer than 16 joint co- operation projects to bond the two regions together. Officials said the plans - which were expected to be rubber stamped at the end of the two-day Summit - were designed to give ASEM a 'human face' by raising the level of educational, cultural and intellectual exchanges. They were contained in the Asia-Europe Co-operation Framework (AECF) 2000, or the ASEM charter, . . . a key document outlining the course of ASEM for the coming ten years, which includes various co-operative projects and guidelines for new admissions. Officials also said that the first day of talks produced none of the anticipated rows between Asian and European leaders - even when they debated sensitive issues like trade policy and human rights . . . (8)ASEM III, as the 2000 meeting is known, focused on the theme of 'Partnership for Prosperity and Stability', and contained several key initiatives: (9) -
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| Websites and Key Documents:
Outlines of the ASEM II Agenda (the 1998
Asia-Europe Meeting)
Documents from the ASEM III Meeting, including
key declarations,
This website includes key documents:
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Select Bibliography:
BERGSTEN, C. Fred "America's Two-Front Economic Conflict",
Foreign
Affairs, 80 no. 2, (March/April 2001), pp16-27
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Copyright: R. James Ferguson 2001