President Park Geun-hye waves as she boards the presidential plane at the military airport in Seongnam, southeast of Seoul, on July 14, 2016, to depart for Mongolia to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit and hold a summit with her Mongolian counterpart.
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The Chief Executive instead ordered Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay to represent him in the meeting to be held on July 15 and 16 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.
At a plenary session of the summit, Mr Lee said: “I join my colleagues in expressing my sympathies to the people and government of France, and condolences to the families of the victims”.
The Summit officially commenced at Shangri-La Hotel in presence of high-level delegation from 51 ASEM partners, 30 European and 21 Asian countries and two intergovernmental organizations.
He was received at the airport by P Tsagaan, the head of Mongolian President’s administration. Both days were marked by tragic events overseas that shocked all the leaders present in Ulaanbaatar.
The ASEM is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation bringing together 53 members, including the 28 EU member states, two other European countries, and the EU with 21 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat.
The leaders of Asia and Europe termed enhancing connectivity across diverse domains as very important and it is a commonly shared objective saying connectivity will be mainstreamed into all ASEM cooperation frameworks.
The 11th ASEM Summit yet again re-emphasized the importance of multilateral diplomacy and cooperation on key global issues that increasingly affecting the lives of common citizens and offered the opportunity to highlight issues of political and socio-economic importance for India. He is scheduled to elaborate on Beijing’s proposition for ASEM’s future development, Asia-Europe cooperation and major worldwide and regional issues.
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An enlarged ASEM has taken on a much more interdependent and cooperative character and provides an ideal platform for generating greater connections between Asia and Europe for peace, stability, economic prosperity and sustainable and inclusive development. It represents around 62.3 per cent of the world’s population, 57.2 per cent of the global GDP and nearly 60 per cent of the world’s trade.
