ASEM to launch bold cooperation plan

Date: 19/10/00

By Shada Islam

THE EU and East Asian nations are embarking on an ambitious programme of co-operation to combat international crime, illegal immigration and trafficking in women and children as part of a new agenda to be set this weekend in Seoul.

Discussions at the third Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit, which begins tomorrow (20 October), will also consider developments in South Korea's policy of gradual rapprochement with its reclusive northern neighbour. Union leaders are expected to join their Asian counterparts in supporting the goal of peaceful unification of the two countries.

Less welcome to some in Asia will be Union expressions of concern at the continuing violence in West Timor and Burma's deteriorating human rights record following a tightening of restrictions on opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Diplomats say Rangoon's get-tougher policy against pro-democracy activists may force EU foreign ministers to call off a long-awaited meeting with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in December in Laos. Foreign ministers from the two regions have not met since July 1997, when Burma joined ASEAN. Seven ASEAN countries (including Laos, Cambodia and Burma) are members of ASEM, along with China, South Korea and Japan.

Other initiatives will try to fight so-called ASEM 'fatigue' and make the four-year-old dialogue more relevant to popular concerns. The summit will launch a 'Trans-Euroasia Information Network', discuss cooperation in managing Europe-Asia migratory flows, and encourage the exchange of students.

Joint efforts to fight money laundering and foster co-operation between law enforcement bodies in East Asia and the Union are also expected. The EU wants to secure ASEM support for the launch of a new global trade round, despite resistance to further liberalisation moves in some South-East Asian nations.

Union and Asian diplomats are hoping the impressive catalogue of initiatives will give a new lease of life to ASEM at a time of change in both regions. Asian nations may have clawed their way out of the 1997 recession faster than many anticipated, but there is concern that the recovery has prevented countries from completing economic and political reforms. Meanwhile, EU leaders go to Seoul worried about the disappointing performance of the euro and preoccupied with institutional reform and enlargement.

EU diplomats argue that these challenges could make ASEM 3 more interesting. Instead of being dominated by economic euphoria or crisis-driven pessimism, the encounter will highlight the two regions' common problems. Europe and Asia, equally vulnerable to high oil prices could, for instance, send a powerful joint "message" to oil-producing nations about the need to ensure a steady supply of oil at reasonable costs.

The EU and East Asian nations are embarking on an ambitious programme of co-operation to combat international crime, illegal immigration and trafficking in women and children as part of a new agenda to be set in Seoul on 20 October 2000.