This year marks the 20th anniversary since ASEM was launched in Bangkok, Thailand in 1996. The Philippines’s top diplomat is also expected to highlight the need for parties to respect the decision of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled that China’s expansive territorial claim has no legal basis. More than 50 leaders will discuss ways to enhance their intercontinental partnership on issues ranging from climate change to terror threats and North Korea will be a part of that agenda as one of the threats to security and the economy in the region.
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At the start of an EU-China summit in Beijing earlier this week, EU Council President Donald Tusk called on his hosts to protect the “rule-based global order”, saying the task “may be the biggest challenge ahead of us”.
“As shifting geopolitics lead to greater uncertainties and volatility in the world, ASEM will reinforce its role as a catalyst for effective multilateralism and a rules-based worldwide order”, it said.
France’s foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault cut short his visit and prepared to return to Paris, thanking the dignitaries for their “spontaneous and honest solidarity towards the French people”.
The Asian giant, which boycotted the hearings, says the tribunal has no jurisdiction, and has poured scorn on the verdict. It said that ASEM will strive to further strengthen Asia-Europe multi-dimensional and people-centered partnership. “I’ll underscore the importance of the rule of law and peaceful resolution” of the issue”, Abe said.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have also engaged in maritime disputes with China that has delineated its claim to the waterway with “the nine-dash-line”, a maritime demarcation line that takes in more than 80 percent of the South China Sea.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has arrived in Ulanbator, the capital of Mongolia, for an official visit.
On being asked, the EU Ambassador in Dhaka Pierre Mayaudon told bdnews24.com that the leaders would take stock of the two decades of partnership and look forward to the third decade of ASEM cooperation.
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Asian and European countries, he added, should jointly safeguard the post-World War II worldwide order, abandon Cold-War and zero-sum mentality, and strive to make the worldwide order and global governance system more and more fair and reasonable. “There is no shift in our foreign policy”.
