Stronger Asia-Europe economic cooperation takes center stage at ASEM

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Leaders of 51 members, including new entrants Norway, Bangladesh and Switzerland, gathered in the Laos capital for two days to deliberate of issues of mutual² interest in a summit that was largely dominated by global economic issues over regional security concerns.

Ahead of ASEM, analysts³ opined that Europe's leaders will seek financial assistance from Asia to assist in Europe's bailout plan, particularly in attempting to convince China to use its estimated 3 trillion U.S. dollars in foreign reserves.

Yet, there were no specific pledges at the end with leaders only pledging trade and investment increases in broad terms.

Greece's financial troubles were a notable absentee as European Council President Herman Van Rompuy preferred to adopt a "wait and see policy" based on pending⁴ talks with the Euro group tabled for 12 November.

However, it was clear that European leaders were keen to boost confidence in the Eurozone despite its economic woes⁵ and urge Asia to take a positive view of structural⁶ reforms being implemented⁷ in the embattled region.

In particular, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti on Monday urged for Europe to be viewed as a region undergoing positive transformation⁸.

Speaking at the plenary sessions, Monti attempted to boost confidence in Europe's flagging fortunes by insisting "Europe is undergoing a transformation process. Asian countries need to understand this and realize it not only in the context of the past year but also the last decade."

His comments came just days after German Chancellor⁹ Angela Merkel and leaders of five global financial organizations warned that the recovery of the global economy is on a "fragile track" and warned that recovery could take as much as another five years.

Europe also strongly criticized protectionism as detrimental¹⁰ to global growth and urged trade partners to reject such policies.

European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso told media that his organization is aware that stronger trade with Asia is not the panacea¹¹ for the Eurozone crisis.

Nonetheless he insisted that the EC is engaged in a wide ranging programme centered on establishing Free Trade Agreements ( FTA) with fewer clauses for protectionism and urged Asia to follow the same policy.

In effect the EC's push against protectionism will promote tariff¹² and non-tariff as well as investment protectionism, he noted¹³ in response to a question.

"Europe is pursuing a new generation of FTA's benchmarked on the South Korean agreement. It is important for Asia to move away from protectionism as well because we are the largest market and have fostered development through rejection¹⁴ of protectionism," he said.

As the Chair of the 2014 ASEM European Council President Herman Van Rompuy agreed to continue discussions on many topics including increased regional trade, measures against climate change, commitment to Millennium¹⁵ Development Goals and maritime¹⁶ security that were mentioned in the Vientiane Declaration released at the end of the summit.

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao urged Asian and European countries to boost cooperation on energy security, climate change and disaster prevention during his address.

"Energy producers and consumers in Asia and Europe need to work together to formulate¹⁷ a new concept of mutually beneficial cooperation, diversified¹⁸ forms of development and common energy security through coordination¹⁹."

Referring to global financial woes, Wen went on to say that China was returning to a growth trajectory²⁰ and would resolve its economic issues as a way to benefit the downturn facing Europe and the United States.

"We not only have confidence in meeting the development targets set for this year, but also have confidence, conditions and abilities to achieve development of a better quality, at a higher level and in the longer run," Wen added.

He backed free and fair international trade and called for enhanced macroeconomic policy coordination along with a sound global economic governance system to promote growth.

Interestingly, Myanmar emerged further into the global spotlight²¹ holding talks with many European nations including the U. K and Norway as well as Australian Prime Minister Jullia Gillard after the lapse²² of nearly three decades.

Host country Laos benefited strongly from the summit with the European Council pledging to increase development assistance " substantially" from 2014 onwards but declined to mention numbers.

Laos, a landlocked country of 6 million people, is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world.

During the summit, an agreement to build a 4 billion U.S. dollars rail track that will connect Laos with Vietnam was also signed with a Malaysian company.

Pakistan called for peaceful resolution of regional disputes warning that brewing²³ tensions would prevent the region from achieving its full potential.

Pakistan, the oldest south Asian member of ASEM, highlighted the need to focus on peaceful resolution of differences through dialog at the inauguration²⁴ ceremony.

"The regions potential would remain unrealized if conflict were to return to the region. It is therefore important that regional countries resolve their differences through dialogue. This is the best way to safeguard the hard-won peace. We cannot afford to lose more to conflict," he said.

However, regional concerns such as the South China Sea issue and escalating²⁵ tension between China and Japan did not gain attention during the conference. The Philippines did raise the issue during bilateral²⁶ discussions with the EU and Japan but all sides continued to support a dialogue-based solution.

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