EDITORIAL from Korea Herald on Oct. 21

Asia-Europe meeting

When more than 40 heads of government from Asia and Europe meet in Beijing later
this week, the devastating aftermath of the U.S. financial crisis will inevitably
dominate the discussion. This overwhelming issue, while it offers timely agenda
for the biannual meeting, could pull the Asia-Europe Meeting away from its
originally intended role -- the practicability of which is being widely
questioned 12 years after its inception.
The "financial tsunami" from Wall Street is sweeping nations in the Europe and
Asia in diverse ways. Leaders of the 27 members of the European Union, the 10
ASEAN countries and the three Northeast Asian states of Korea, Japan and China
will all have much to say about their own troubles and about collective measures
to overcome the turmoil. Yet, the exclusion of the United States from the forum
could limit the significance of the two-day conference on Friday and Saturday.
An array of items are on the agenda for the ASEM 7 conference, under the theme
"Vision and Action: Towards a Win-Win Solution." Topics include education, the
environment, sustainable development, human rights, climate change, energy, food
security, counterterrorism and the Asian region's two pressing political issues
of the Thai-Cambodian border dispute and the North Korean nuclear standoff, in
addition to the financial problems.
President Lee Myung-bak, for his part, is expected to press for speedy action to
create an $80 billion regional fund to help protect Asian economies from the
financial crisis. Other leaders from Asian and European states will come forward
with their own ideas of collective steps to cope with the unprecedented global
emergency. With a preoccupation on financial matters, it is hard to expect the
participants to direct their attention to other fundamental issues related to
ASEM's objective of creating a balanced world order.
In the mid-1990s, following the end of the Cold War, an economically dynamic East
Asia and an increasingly integrated Europe saw a mutually beneficial future in
their partnership and interdependence. Asian and European leaders aimed to
complete a triangular cooperative system by linking their two regions in a world
which already had close trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic ties, both economic and
political.
But different interests and perceptions among its main players have held ASEM
back from making a strong start. Contrary to the initial optimism of closer
international cooperation on the basis of multilateral ties, the world has since
become increasingly fractious, according to a 2006 joint report by European and
Asian study groups.
Researchers from the University of Helsinki and Japan Center for International
Exchange determined that dialogue through ASEM was broad but not deep. They said
the process failed to produce substantive cooperation in the three main fields --
political, economic and socio-cultural -- especially compared to the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. "ASEM has not been able to enhance the balance
of power in the triangle remarkably," the report concluded.
In Beijing, officials from the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat will
try hard to produce agreements of substance, considering the urgent global
financial situation. We sincerely hope that their efforts, with the active
participation of the Asian and European leaders, will bear fruit. Such
achievements would improve confidence in governments and businesses worldwide at
this difficult time.
The ASEM summit in Beijing, by all accounts, is about to decide the future of the
inter-regional forum. It will decide whether it will grow to a dependable axis
for global cooperation or will deteriorate to become a lame body unable to
address pressing global issues, remaining an "informal, loose and non-binding"
channel of dialogue as its operational principle guides.
(END)