12th Asia-Europe Meeting kicks off in Brussels

By Serife Cetin and Ata Ufuk Seker

BRUSSELS

The 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) bringing together 30 leaders from Europe and 21 from Asia kicked off Thursday in Brussels.

European Council President Donald Tusk is chairing the summit, and the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is representing the EU.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Europe and Asia: global partners for global challenges," according to the EU Council website.

Following Friday’s sessions, the bloc and Singapore will sign free trade and investment protection agreements, negotiations over which started in 2010.

The leaders will focus on improving partnership and cooperation in political, economic, financial, social, and cultural areas.

Among the topics of the biennial summit are strengthening dialogue and cooperation between the two continents in many areas, including trade and investment, connectivity, sustainable development and climate, and security challenges such as terrorism, non-proliferation, cyber-security, and irregular migration.

ASEM countries make up 60 percent of world population and realize 55 percent of international trade.

The 11th summit of ASEM, founded in 1996 to improve dialogue and cooperation between Europe and Asia, was held in Mongolia in 2016.