The 11th ASEM Summit

 November 19, 2017

Introduction

The ASEM11-Summit was held 15-16 July 15, 2016, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Present at the summit were 51 Heads of State and Government from ASEM partner countries, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Union. The delegation led by U Htin Kyaw, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, a partner country attended the summit.

Extraordinarily enough, the (ASEM11) Summit coincided with the 20th anniversary of ASEM Summits held. Accordingly, “20 Years of ASEM: Partnership for the Future through Connectivity” was designated as the overarching theme of Ulaanbaatar Summit. Prior to the presentation of what topics were discussed at the Summit and which kinds of results were achieved from the Summit, the background history of ASEM needs to be explained on the assumption that it will sure help all to be well convinced.

ASEM’s Background History

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) commenced to be held in 1996, with a view to cooperating bilateral benefits between countries in Asia and European Union. Looking back into causes of convening ASEM, Asia’s economic development must be traced.

In 1965, Europe occupied 25 percent of the global GDP, with that of the then Asia being only 9 percent. But, when GDP was calculated in comparison with Purchasing Power Parity [PPP] in 1994 the then EU with 15 member countries had US$ 6.728 trillion, with Asia possessing 7.656 trillion. Concerning commerce, in 1970s Europe’ commerce was 44 percent of the global volume, with that of Asia being 10 percent only. In 1994, Asia region rose up to 19 percent whereas Europe did plunge into 38 percent.

With such economic developments in Asia entrepreneurs in European countries put pressure on their governments to constantly monitor profitable opportunities emerging in Asia and to study every sector likely to be beneficial for both sides. For this, in 1994 European Commission issued a preliminary report named, “Strategy on Relation with Asian Region.” The two leaders who led for emergence of discussions between Asia and Europe were French President Jacques Chirac and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. In January 1996, the first-ever EU-Asia Cultural Forum took place in Venice, Italy. 3 Months later, in March 1996 the first ASEM Summit comprising of 1o nations from Asia and 15 from EU was held in Bangkok, Thailand. At the advent of the establishment, there were 25 nations from the two regions plus EU Commission. Now that member countries are increasing more—21 from Asia, EU 30 nations plus ASEAN Secretariat and EU Commission, its members reached all together 53, namely Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, the Lao PDR, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Vietnam while the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat are the regional organizations involved.

ASEM’s Destinations

4 major destinations of ASEM are as follows:

* To support global peace and security by making Asia- Europe Continents cooperate,

* To find solution through negotiation for the development of global economy, commerce and investment

* To upgrade importance of the two continents in global affairs

* To increase mutual understanding and trust between different societies with different cultures, customs and traditions and to build up society based on peaceful co-existence for global peace, security, development and prosperity.

ASEM’s Procedures and Meetings

ASEM is a meeting which does not seem to be the organization set up officially, based on documents, agreements and contracts, instead different views and opinions are exchanged by valuing mutual understanding and trust so as to bring about inter-respect between countries, equality and enjoyment of same benefits between Asia-Europe regions, without tensions and confrontations to each other. ASEM Process is always carried out in accord with Asia-Europe Co-operation Framework [AECF 2000] laid down in 2000.

ASEMs are generally categorized into four—ASEM Summit, ASEM Ministerial Meeting, ASEM Respective Ministers’ Meeting and ASEM Senior Officials’ Meeting. ASEM Summits held every two years, alternately in Asia and Europe are attended by Heads of the Governments. ASEM Summit is the highest authoritative body as it can decide concerning important matters. It is also politically important. ASEM 1 was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 1996, ASEM 2 in London, United Kingdom in 1998, ASEM 3 in Seoul, Korea in 2000, ASEM 4 in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2002, ASEM 5 in Hanoi, Viet Nam in 2004, ASEM 6 in Helsinki, Finland in 2006, ASEM 7 in Beijing, China in 2008, ASEM 8 in Brussels, Belgium in 2010, ASEM 9 in Vientiane, Lao PDR in 2012, ASEM 10 in Milan, Italy in 2014 and ASEM 11 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2016.

ASEM Ministerial Meeting is held every two years from 2006 on, in the years when ASEM Summit is not held. Provided that all member countries presume that a ministerial meeting is essentially needed to be held in the year when ASEM Summit is held, it can be convened. Other minister-level meetings on culture, education, labor and employment, finance, science and technology, environment conservation, immigration and transport had already been held.

The most fundamental meeting in ASEM is none other than Senior Officials’ Meeting [SOM]. Though it is generally designated that it be held at least two times per year, it used to be convened depending upon the requirements. Sectors which would like to be discussed or to be cooperated among ASEM member countries commence to be negotiated at senior officials’ meeting, and the acquired agreements are to be submitted to ASEM Foreign Ministers’ meeting, thence to ASEM Summit. Besides, initiatives on cooperation in the sectors respective countries take interest are submitted to senior officials’ meeting for approval.

For lack of Secretariat which will coordinate for convening ASEM meetings, there are coordinators assigned alternatively to perform the tasks of Secretariat. The countries taking responsibility of coordinators till the time when the 11th ASEM Summit was held in 2016 were Myanmar and New Zealand from Asia Side and Europe Commission and Slovakia from Europe Side. Present coordinators are the Philippines and Pakistan from Asia Side and European Union and Estonia from Europe Side.

Asia-Europe Foundation [ASEF]

If and when ASEM Meetings are to be chosen as the topic for presentation, Asia-Europe Foundation cannot be excluded. ASEF is the only foundation officially founded by ASEM. ASEM Summit 1 decided to set up Asia-Europe Foundation [ASEF] with a view to increasing mutual understanding among ASEM member countries. The Office of Asia-Europe Foundation founded in 1997 is situated in Singapore.

The major tasks of ASEF are to promote relation of culture, education and the public between Asia and Europe. ASEF is implementing projects in six sectors—culture, economy, education, administration, public health and sustainable development. In the year 2015, ASEF successfully implemented a total of 31 projects, simultaneously holding discussions and cooperation between social societies from Asia and Europe. As a result, it managed to increase unity and consolidation among people.

ASEF gets it budget fund by contributing designated amount of their own accords, as for the governments of ASEM member countries. And, most of the ASEF’s projects were funded by partner organizations and private entrepreneurs. Since joining ASEM, Myanmar is contributing its annual fees to ASEF.

The board of the central authority for ASEF is the Board of Governors [BOG]. Governors are appointed on the basis of one governor from a country by ASEM member countries. Generally, diplomats from respective countries, entrepreneurs, ex-government officials or well-known persons are appointed. The governor appointed by Myanmar is the Myanmar ambassador to Singapore, U Htay Aung. BOG always lays down principles of ASEF.

Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director represent for the Secretariat of ASEF. Those from Asia and Europe take these post with 4-year-tenure alternately. Currently, the Executive Director is Mr. Karsten Warnecke of Germany, with Mr. Sun Xiangyang of China being Deputy Executive Director.

ASEM and Myanmar

After becoming a member country starting from ASEM Summit held in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2004, Myanmar took part in every ASEM meeting. Under the agreement from ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, designation of the status of the representative who will attend the ASEM Summit is under the authority of the respective country and its decision must be accepted by the remaining member countries. Though head of the government was invited to attend the ASEM Summit, 2004, the Minister for the Office of the Prime Minister was present, on his behalf. Starting from ASEM Summit 9 held in Vientiane, Lao PDR in 2012, Head of State, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar started to attend the ASEM Summit.

(To be continued)

Translated by Khin Maung Oo

Continued from 20-11-2017 11th ASEM summit meeting

After explaining the history of ASEM meetings, 11th ASEM summit meeting held in Mongolia will be presented again. Opening ceremony of the summit meeting was held at Shangri-La hotel in Ulaanbaatar in the morning of 15 July 2016 and the President of the host country, Mongolia, Mr. Tsiakhia Elbegdorj, President of European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk, President of European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Junker, Prime Minister of Finland,Mr. Robert Fico, ASEAN Coordinator, President of Myanmar, U Hti Kyaw, Coordinator for Northeast and South Asia Chief Coordinator, Foreign Minister of New Zeland, Mr. Murray McCully delivered the addresses respectively. A remarkable and tragic incident in which a truck had stormed into the crowd in Nice, France killing many people had happened a day before the meeting, that is on 14 July 2016. All the leaders attending the meeting unanimously condemned the terrorists’ atrocities.

Afterwards, the friendly organizations of ASEM, Asia-Europe Parliamentary Meeting representative, representative of Model ASEM, and representatives from Asia- Europe Business Forum read the reports regarding their works they had done. The plenary meeting of the heads of the nations who attends the 11th summit meeting was held under the two headings as(1) Two Decades of Partnership: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead (2) promoting the ASEM Partnership for Greater Connectivity. The President of Myanmar discussed under the heading of Two Decades of Partnership: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead.

In the afternoon the country leaders attending the ASEM summit meeting were entertained by Nadam-Nomadic festival (traditional wrestling)of Mongolia in grand celebration.

On 16 July 2016 the Retreat of the leaders attending the meeting was held at ASEM Village under the heading of Enhancing the Three Pillars of ASEM. As the Retreat of the leaders is the last program of the ASEM Summit Meeting, some of the leaders went back to their country and some leaders were making further discussions between the leaders after the Retreat.

During the time of ASEM Summit Meeting, the President of Myanmar had met with, the President of Mongolia, Mr. Tsakhia Elbegdorj, the President of Croatia, Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Prime Minister of Finland, Mr. Juha Sipila, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Mr. Taavi Roivas, the Prime Minister of Netherland, Mr. Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Mr. Xavier Bettel, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway, Mr. Borge Brende, the Vice-President of Indonesia, Mr. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, the Prime Minister of China, Mr. Li Keqiang, the Prime Minister of Bengladesh, Mrs. Sheik Hasina and discussed about promotion of bilateral relation and cooperation.

Furthermore the announcement issued from 11th ASEM Summit Meeting would be described. Before the ASEM Summit Meeting, the meeting of senior officials was held. Normally, in case there were the announcements including the Chair’s Statement to be issued from ASEM Summit Meeting, the agreement among the leaders on the usage of words and phrases in the Chair’s Statement was sought in advance at the senior officials’ meeting. At 11th ASEM Summit Meeting, apart from Chairs’ Statement and Ulaanbaatar Declaration proposed by host nation, Mongolia, Japan and Bengladesh had proposed to issue separate announcement strongly condemning the terrorist attack on 1st July 2016 in Dacca of Bengladesh which caused 21 dead including 7 Japanese nationals.

As ASEM Chair’s Statement usually includes mentioning the cooperation in politics and security sector, there were effects on the summit meeting by unusual events. Politically there were two unusual events; the first one was that North Korea was continuing its ballistic missile test and nuclear program defying against the UN resolution to stop the nuclear and ballistic missile test; and in retaliation to North Korea’s threat, America had issued an official announcement on 4th July 2016 on the agreement between America and South Korea to deploy America’s strategic THAAD system in South Korea; the second one was that Philippines submitted the complaint in 2012 regarding the territorial dispute in South China Sea between China and Philippines to the International Arbitral Tribunal and the Tribunal set the ruling that China’s territorial claim basing on 9- dotted lines was illegal and not in accord with the maritime law on 12th July 2016. China had declared that it would never recognize the Philippines’s submitting to Arbitral Tribunal and dissociate all the undertakings regarding the South China Sea territorial dispute. China disclosed that it never recognized the ruling of the tribunal.

In accordance with the prevailing conditions, Philippines, Japan and some EU countries tried to include the latest development of South China Sea crisis in the Chair’s Statement, but China and Russia intensely objected. Likewise, Russia and China tried to include their objection to THAAD deployment in Japan in Chair’s Statement, however Japan and South Korea rejected. The senior officials’ meeting had started at 9am of 12 July and as they did not come to any agreement till the morning of 14 July, the senior official of Mongolia, exercising his Prerogative of the Chair decided to use the same wording as in the previous ASEM Meeting. Thus the Chair’s Statement could be issued successfully.

Japan and Bengladesh proposed to include the announcement of condemnation on terrorism, however other countries did not agree reasoning that terrorism was happening in every part of the world, so not to highlight the terrorism specifically in Bengladesh only, but just to mention the terrorism in general. While the meeting was in deadlock without being able to get agreement , another terrorist attack occurred in Nice, France where a truck stormed in the crowd of the Bastille Festival killing many people on 14th July 2016 one day ahead of the summit meeting. All the leaders in the meeting unanimously condemned the terrorist attack and successfully include the announcement of condemning the terrorism in the Chair’s Statement.

Chair’s Statement of 11th ASEM Summit Meeting stated that ASEM had overcome the various challenges for two decades and it could also enhance the cooperation in all sectors for the benefit of the people of Asia and Europe. Furthermore it could produce the practical result including the promotion in connectivity between the two people, improving the all-inclusiveness of different layers of people, creation of the opportunities in accordance with the policy of equality, mutual respect and benefit sharing. ASEM will support the United Nation to be able to implement the objectives of sustainable development, to mitigate the damage due to natural disasters, to help to enliven the provisions of Paris Agreement to be able to expedite the implementation of convention framework of UN on climate change.

Moreover the Chair’s Statement urged the member countries to practise the coordination among the ASEM nations for ASEM to be more capable and efficient. It stated that member countries shall try to organize the social organizations, business organizations, labour organizations, women organizations, intellectuals, students, reporters to be more included in ASEM programs. It also mentioned that ASEM welcomed the request of South Korea to hold next ASEM Meeting in South Korea and also the request of Myanmar to hold 13th ASEM foreign minister’s meeting at Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

In Ulaanbaatar Declaration stated as ASEM partnership has come into the 3rd decade, basing on the past experience, the member countries are needed to strengthen the partnership between European and Asian countries, to focus on the cooperation in the sector that will practically benefit the people and to enhance the connectivity in all sectors.

Evaluation

ASEM meeting is a forum to promote the cooperation between Asia and Europe which are politically, economically and culturally significant. ASEM started its activities in 1996 and now it reaches 20 years of age. ASEM was started with 26 countries only, however, now it has grown to have 53 countries. By witnessing that growth the ASEM meetings are known to be significant and relevant. ASEM can promote the mutual understanding between the two big regions, Asia and Europe within 20 years. It could undertake the economic, social and cultural exchange and achieved in holding the political discussions.

Currently all Asian and European countries are not included, nevertheless, it is evident that ASEM is important not ony for Asia and Europe but also for stability and development of world politics and economy as it can represent 70% of world population, 58% of world GDP, 60 % of global trade and it contained 7 out of 10 world economic super powers and 12 G20 countries.

ASEM has not only expand the member countries but also extend the cooperation realm. Apart from the three pillars, political pillar, financial and commercial pillar and social and cultural pillar, ASEM could have extended to anti-terrorism sector, human rights and labour rights sector, transportation sector, industrial sector, promotion of physical connectivity such car road, rail road and airways and soft connectivity such as people engagement and exchange of information and technology.

In other words, ASEM had only mere informal meeting in early period, however, after 20 years it could have embarked on the right track of cooperation that could engender practical beneficial result for two large regions. The future potential of ASEM meetings are vividly perceived as brightening as the member countries attending at 11th ASEM Summit disclosed that they had firm political commitment to support and strengthen the people-based ASEM cooperation in the coming 3rd decade. Myanmar has engaged with other countries of the world amicably practicing independent , active and non-aligned foreign policy. The relations between Myanmar and EU countries were strained and at the wake of elected government in power in 2012the relationship has improved. In 2016 in the term of incumbent government remarkably improved relation has been seen between EU and Myanmar. The improved relationship with EU countries can lead to the enhancement of cooperation that can support Myanmar government in endeavoring to meet the economic and political target.

Nowadays as both regions are facing with terrorism, climate change, food security, monetary crisis and necessities of infrastructure they have to be interdependent. Active participation of Myanmar in ASEM meeting indicates Myanmar has always been cooperating with international countries in addressing the crisis and by taking part in the ASEM meeting Myanmar has chance to promote its cooperation with EU countries. Agreement of all ASEM countries to the proposal of Myanmar to hold ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Myanmar in 2017 manifests that international has recognized Myanmar’s transition to democratic state. It can be taken as a great diplomatic feat of Myanmar.

This is the revised version of the articles of Tekatho Han Soe U covered in 2016 issue of “Thakaung Taman Magazine” of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Translated by Khin Maung Win

Ref; The Global New Light of Myanmar