Asia meets Europe. Inter-regionalism and the Asia-Europe Meeting

Book abstract:

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is a forum which brings together the heads of state or government from ten countries of Asia (Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and the Member States of the EU in biannual summit meetings.

ASEM is an informal process of dialogue and co-operation. The ASEM dialogue addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between the two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. The first ASEM summit meeting took place in Bangkok in March 1996, and the most recent in Copenhagen in September 2002. Ministerial meetings take place in intervening years to the summit meetings, while there are also a series of further working meetings.

This new book examines the development and progress of this process both in terms of Europe-Asia relations, and also of the role of inter-regionalism in the world. The first chapter explores various key approaches to the study of regions and offers possible interpretations for examining inter-regionalism as a unique and alternative path for international exchange. Chapter 2 offers an overview of Asia Europe historical relations as they have shaped mutual interpretations of one another. The following three chapters each take a 'pillar' of the ASEM format to examine the economic, political and socio-cultural aspects of Asia-Europe dialogue. The Conclusions consider the extent to which Asia-Europe relations throw light upon inter-regionalism as a discrete level of analysis, and suggests possible avenues of future research on region-to-region relations.

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