Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja to attend ASEM Meeting in Kyoto

Press release 142/2005
May 3, 2005

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will be heading the Finnish delegation in the 7th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting between Asian and EU Countries in Kyoto, Japan on 6-7 May. The next ASEM Summit will be organised in Finland in September 2006. This means an emphasised role for Finland in promoting the ASEM process after the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kyoto.

The Kyoto meeting will discuss political and economic themes as well as cooperation in the cultural and social sectors. The meeting is expected to lay down some guidelines particularly as regards the future areas of focus and working programme for the ASEM cooperation.

The ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) cooperation process between Asia and Europe was launched in 1996. The participants in the first ASEM Summit in Bangkok included the Commission of the European Union, the 15 EU Member States of the time, seven ASEAN countries, and China, Japan and South Korea. In the Hanoi Summit in 2004 the number of ASEM members increased as also the countries that had joined the EU in the latest round of enlargement as well as the new ASEAN members Laos, Burma/Myanmar and Cambodia, acceded in 1997 and 1999, joined the process. Today the number of participating countries is 39.

ASEM cooperation differs from other external foreign relations of the EU since it is informal in nature. The process is built upon an open and evolving dialogue which promotes concrete cooperation aiming at lasting economic and social development by means of various initiatives.

Additional information: EU Assistant Ville Andersson, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Unit for Asia and Oceania, tel. +358 9 1605 5689, and Press Attaché Susanna Parkkonen, tel. +358 40 545 1275