On Oct 14, 2008, the foreign ministry held a briefing for domestic and foreign journalists. Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jieyi introduced the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit to be held in Beijing from Oct 24 to 25. Deputy Director-General Qin Gang of the Information Department hosted the briefing.

I. The ASEM Summit

Initiated in 1996, ASEM is the highest level of and biggest inter-governmental forum between Asia and Europe. It aims at creating favorable conditions for the economic and social development of Asia and Europe through strengthening dialogue, understanding and cooperation to build a new type of all-round Asia-Europe partnership. After two rounds of enlargement since establishment, ASEM now has 45 partners, including 17 from Asia, i.e. the 10 ASEAN members, the ASEAN Secretariat, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan and Mongolia and 28 from Europe, i.e. the 27 EU members and the European Commission. With their GDP together making up more than 50% and population and trade volume about 60% of the global total respectively, the ASEM partners exert great influence in the world, according to Liu.

After 12 years of development, ASEM has made fruitful achievements in the three pillar areas of political dialogue, economic cooperation and social and cultural exchanges. In the political field, ASEM partners have increased mutual understanding by strengthening dialogue on major international and regional issues and reached greater common consensuses on such big issues as promoting multilateralism, maintaining the role of the UN and jointly coping with global challenges. On the economic arena, they have actively carried out dialogues on macro economic and financial policies and enjoy ever growing trade and mutual investment. In the cultural area, they generally support cultural diversification, pushed for the adoption of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions, actively conducted dialogues among different beliefs, held rich cultural exchanges and promoted friendship at the non-governmental level. The parliaments, business community and civil society of ASEM partners have also continued to enhance exchanges, said Liu.

II. China’s Participation in ASEM

China has always been an active advocator and constructive participant of Asia-Europe cooperation process and is committed to deepening the cooperation mechanism of the two continents. Since 1996, successive Chinese premiers have attended all the ASEM summits and raised the basic principles for establishing a new type of partnership between Asia and Europe and initiatives on strengthening political dialogue and consultations, enhancing economic and trade relations, reinforcing environmental and agricultural cooperation, expanding dialogue on culture and civilization and promoting youth exchanges. China has initiated and hosted a number of ministerial-level meetings and other major activities involving customs, science and technology, environment and culture. 17 out of the over 100 initiatives ASEM has implemented since establishment are proposed by China. We have also initiated more ministerial-level meetings than any other partner.

III. The 7th ASEM Summit

Liu noted that the summit is the highest level of ASEM activity and responsible for setting the guiding principles and development direction of ASEM. It is held every second year in Asia and Europe alternatively. The 7th summit will be held under special international circumstances. The three interwoven major challenges, including the turbulent international financial market, energy and climate change and food safety have made the international situation even more complicated. Under the theme of dialogue, cooperation, mutual benefit and common prosperity, the summit would focus on these issues and at the same time widely exchange opinions on such topics as disaster relief cooperation, international and regional situations, promoting trade and investment between Asia and Europe, sustainable development and strengthening dialogue among different civilizations in a bid to increase Asia-Europe mutual trust and cooperation, discuss common countermeasures and benefit the people of the two continents.

The 7th ASEM summit will be held in Beijing Oct 24-25. It is another great international event to be hosted by China after the Beijing Olympic Games. Most of the 44 foreign partners have confirmed their attendance. The main activities of the summit will be held on the afternoon of Oct 24 and throughout Oct 25, including the welcome ceremony, group photos, opening ceremony, plenary session and closing ceremony. President Hu Jintao will attend some of those activities. Premier Wen Jiabao will chair the meetings and host a dinner for the guests. After the summit, leaders of the four coordinators, including China, France, Brunei and the European Commission will host press conference. In addition, the Chinese leaders will also meet with foreign leaders attending the meetings before, during and after the summit.

IV. Major Expected Outcome of the ASEM Summit

In accordance with practice, a chairman's statement is expected to be passed by the 7th ASEM summit to reflect the partners’ stance on a series of major issues and outline key areas of cooperation in the future. The summit will also discuss and pass documents on such urgent issues faced by the international community as sustainable development. It will adopt a number of cooperation initiatives to promote the pragmatic collaboration of ASEM partners in the three pillar areas of political dialogue, economic and trade cooperation and social and cultural exchanges, said Liu.

He noted that China attaches great importance to the summit for which the foreign ministry, other related governmental agencies and the Beijing municipal government have made careful preparations. So far, China has got basically ready in terms of political preparations, protocol, information service, security and safety and logistics. It keeps close cooperation with all the other ASEM partners in the process of making preparations. In order to minimize the influence of the summit on the daily traffic of Beijing residents, we have carefully selected hotels and planned transportation services for the guests. We are also committed to hosting a green summit and have taken a number of “green” measures, including making and packaging articles for the summit by using green and environmentally friendly materials, choosing reusable materials to decorate the conference rooms and the zero-emission clean shuttle buses between the press center and the conference hall. We hope to further demonstrate Asia and Europe’s determination and efforts to cope with climate change and realize sustainable development during this summit and add more shining green stars to the sky over the head of mankind. We believe all the other ASEM partners will join hands with China and with their active efforts the summit will be a full success.

Liu also answered questions of journalists.

On the question whether the summit will propose initiatives concerning the financial crisis, Liu said that it will discuss how can Asian and European countries strengthen cooperation to survive the crisis against the drastic changes in the international financial market. The ASEM partners will decide the specific form to illustrate the outcome of their discussions. As the host country, China will listen widely to the opinions of and make joint efforts with the other partners to ensure the suggestions of the summit on coping with the financial crisis serve the common interest of all the partners and the international community as well.

Concerning whether the summit will discuss climate change and whether China will raise related initiatives, Liu noted that the Chinese government pays great attention to climate change. We hope that the summit will make progress on the discussions in that regard. China plans to suggest an initiative on building the Asia-Europe eco-city network so as to promote the tangible cooperation on climate change. We hope to see positive response from parties concerned.

Being asked to comment on the real outcome of ASEM, Liu said the summit will discuss the general direction of Asia-Europe cooperation and conduct tangible exchanges and cooperation. Such exchanges and cooperation have been strengthened since the first ASEM summit was held in 1996. Among the more than 100 initiatives of ASEM, some have been completed and some are being implemented gradually. To promote the exchanges and cooperation is beneficial not only to the two continents but also the whole world.

As to what special measures will the organizer take to reduce the impact of the summit on the daily traffic of Beijingers, Liu said that it has been taken into careful consideration to minimize such impact. The organizer has worked hard, made careful preparations and designed reasonable plans to ensure ASEM leaders can arrive at the conference hall as scheduled. He expressed confidence that the Beijingers will carry forward the sound manner they demonstrated during the Beijing Olympic Games and extend full support for the ASEM summit.