Europe, Asia eye common crisis response
and stability, sustainable development, climate change, energy and food security, terrorism, and the thorny issue of human rights.
French Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard Chesnel said both regions needed to act in unison to deal with the economic meltdown, noting that the meeting would consider the concerns of a larger membership with the admission of India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) secretariat into the biennial summit.
“This is an opportunity for us to coordinate policies,” he said.
France, which holds the presidency of the European Union ( EU), has led the European response to the financial meltdown, calling for a “new Bretton Woods” or a new world financial order and a rollback from excessive market deregulation.
China, host of the informal, nonbinding summit, has been working on the theme of sustainable development for this year’s ASEM but has decided to give emphasis on the financial meltdown.
Mr. MacDonald cited a need to better monitor bank and nonbank systems to avoid a repetition of the crisis, triggered by massive defaults on risky housing loans in the United States.
“Specifically, there should greater and broader control of banking and non- banking financial systems. There should be money to strengthen banks’ capitals,” he said.
Boosting the economic partnership between Asia and Europe is also key to mitigating the impact of the crisis, he said.
“There should be increased trading and investment links with Asia. A crisis like this has shown us that no man or economy is an island. Our prosperity is dependent on the prosperity of others so we must work together to serve mutual interests,” he said.
Mr. MacDonald said there could also be discussions on the stalled trade liberalization talks at the World Trade Organization, earlier said to be one of the possible solutions to mitigate a global economic slowdown.
The ASEM, founded by France and Singapore 12 years ago, brings together 43 countries representing half of the world’s gross domestic product, almost 60% of the world population, and 60% of global trade.
Data from the European Commission web site said Asia has recently surpassed the North American Free Trade Area to become Europe’s main trading partner, accounting for a third of Europe’s total trade flows. European foreign direct investments in Asia amount to a third of European investments abroad.
European leaders are also expected to cite the impending adoption of the ASEAN Charter, which will serve as a constitution for the regional bloc covering Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The charter is a significant step forward for the integration of ASEAN as a political and economic grouping, European officials told visiting Asian journalists in Paris last week, despite fears the document would be weak in dealing with human rights violations.
Europe is generally appreciative of the fact that ASEAN is using the European Union as a guide in carrying out its own integration process, with officials pointing out that warts and all, ASEAN has been doing fine considering it took decades for the EU to take shape.
But the EU appears to be growing impatient over the pace of talks for an ASEAN-EU free trade deal, with the EU preferring a wider scope. It also wants less-developed ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to take the backseat for the meantime.
David Camroux, Southeast Asian expert at the Center for International Studies and Research in Paris, said ASEAN’s lack of “club rules” was hampering relations with Europe. Europeans are disappointed that ASEAN can’t do anything on Myanmar, he added.
“The historical trajectories are quite different,” he said, noting the EU’s creation was to turn the page from the last century’s wars while ASEAN is a “cold war construct.”
“The Europeans are playing football while the Asians are playing something else,” he said.