The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum was officially founded in March 1996 on the initiative of Singapore and with strong support from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This is an informal forum of dialogues between the Heads of State of ASEM member countries.

ASEM had 26 members at the beginning, comprising 15 European Union countries, seven ASEAN member countries and three North East Asian countries.

At the fifth ASEM summit in Hanoi in October 2004, 13 new members were admitted to the grouping. The sixth ASEM meeting held in Finland in 2006 agreed in principle to admit six more members, and the ceremony will take place during the seventh ASEM summit to be held in China in October 2008.

Over the past decade, ASEM has played an important role in consolidating the partnership between Asia and Europe in politics, economics, culture and other areas. ASEM consolidation, expansion and development will promote the combined strength of the two continents and positively contribute to peace, stability, security and prosperity around the world.

With big and dynamic economies, ASEM makes up 58 percent of the world’s population, more than 50 percent of global GDP and more than 60 percent of global trade value. The grouping aims to establish a new and comprehensive partnership between Asia and Europe for strong growth, create better understanding between the two continents’ people, establish close dialogues among equal partners, maintain and enhance peace and stability, as well as creating necessary conditions for sustainable socio-economic development.

ASEM operates on the principle of equal partnership, mutual assistance and mutual benefit which was already stated in the 2000 Asia-Europe Cooperation Framework adopted at the second ASEM summit in 1998 and the third ASEM summit in 2000. Maintaining the principle is very important to ASEM development due to diversity in history, culture, socio-political regimes and disparities of development levels.

As an open, evolutionary and informal process, it is not necessary to institutionalise the grouping. ASEM members do not offer any compulsory agenda for dialogues, but suggest in advance several major issues to be discussed in a comfortable and open manner. ASEM decisions are made through consensus reached by all member countries without signing or voting. 

Vietnam’s contributions to ASEM  

By implementing the policy of diversifying and multilateralising external relations and actively integrating into the region and the world, as an ASEM founder, Vietnam has developed its active role in the ASEM Cooperation Process.

Joining ASEM has created favourable conditions for Vietnam to further strengthen bilateral relations and multilateral diplomacy and make full use of mechanisms of trade and investment cooperation, transfer of technology, human resource development, cultural exchanges, and educational cooperation for national development. In addition, as an equal member, Vietnam has the chance to join other member countries in building the common rules for both Asia and Europe for the sake of peace, cooperation and development in the two continents and the rest of the world, thus elevating its role and position.

Vietnam’s biggest political contribution to the grouping is the successful organisation of ASEM 5 in 2004. Eight years after its establishment, ASEM has made significant achievements, but faces new challenges amidst global and international complications. Therefore, charting a new development course for the grouping in the new context was of great significance. With the successful organisation of ASEM 5 which devised new tasks for the ASEM Cooperation Process, Vietnam showed its active role as the host by harmonising the interests of ASEM members and positively tackling the admission of Myanmar to the grouping, thereby sustaining the development of the process and promoting solidarity within ASEAN.

Economically, ASEM 5 adopted the Hanoi Declaration on Closer ASEM Economic Partnership, navigating future economic cooperation among ASEM member countries. Vietnam’s hosting of the ninth Asia-Europe Business Forum before ASEM 5 helped create a channel of dialogues between the business circles and their governments and provide a model for future organisation of similar forums.

Financially, Vietnamese ministries have so far made use of the ASEM Trust Fund to effectively implement 21 projects valued at US$13.35 million in the areas of financial and banking reform, enterprise restructuring, poverty reduction as well as social welfare reform. All these projects have been highly valued by ASEM member countries.

Regarding cultural cooperation, Vietnam has actively taken part in activities in the ASEM Cooperation Framework such as putting forward the initiative ASEM Cooperation on Protection and Promotion of Cultural Heritage among ASEM Countries which was already adopted at ASEM 2 in London in 1998.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem attended the eighth ASEM Foreign Ministerial Meeting (FMM 8) in Hamburg on May 28-29 as part of the coming ASEM summit in China. 

To promote its status after joining the World Trade Organisation, Vietnam is actively making every effort to substantiate the ASEM cooperation process, particularly in economics, to meet the country’s requirements and practical interests. In addition, Vietnam should make use of the ASEM multilateral mechanisms to enhance bilateral relations with powerful ASEM partners, with a focus on practical issues of common concern in conformity with the country’s interests and to remain firm in principle but flexible on the basis of consensus and close coordination with ASEAN and other Asian countries so that differences between Asia and Europe will not affect their common cooperation.