About ASEF and ASEM

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) promotes greater mutual understanding between Asia and Europe through intellectual, cultural and people-to-people exchanges. Through ASEF, civil society concerns are included as a vital component of deliberations of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). ASEF was established in February 1997 by the participating governments of ASEM and has since implemented over 550 projects, engaging over 17,000 direct participants as well as reaching out to a much wider audience in Asia and Europe.

www.asef.org

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was initiated in 1996 when the ASEM leaders met in Bangkok, Thailand. ASEM is an informal trans-regional platform for dialogue and co-operation between the two regions and has arisen out of a mutual recognition that the relationship between Asia and Europe needed to be strengthened in light of the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st century.

The ASEM process is based on an equal partnership and its activities are grouped into three pillars: political, economic and socio-cultural. ASEM now brings together 46 member states (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vietnam) plus the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat. ASEM holds a Summit every two years, alternately in Asia and in Europe. This is the highest level of decision-making in the process.

Besides the attendance of the Head of States, the Summit also features accompanying Ministers, the Head of the European Commission and other stakeholders. Apart from the Summit meetings, the ASEM process is carried forward through a series of Ministerial and workinglevel meetings, as well as a number of activities arising from it.

www.aseminfoboard.org