EU-Azië top zal in het teken staan van veiligheidskwesties (en)

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) will hold the 10th edition of the Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Gödöllo, Hungary between 6 and 7 June 2011. The negotiations will focus on non-traditional security challenges, such as the issue of food shortage, said Minister for Foreign Affairs, János Martonyi at a press conference in Budapest, on 2 June 2011.

This new type of security challenges includes virtually all security problems other than traditional armed conflicts. In the global world, security risks are posed by terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal arms trade and organised crime. Also, as János Martonyi pointed out, there is a need to address natural disasters, migration starting from crisis spots and food shortage.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs explained that several of these challenges are present in Asia simultaneously. Indeed, Japan has recently been hit by a nuclear and a natural disaster, at the same time, this makes the meeting and its topic especially current. He reminded that informal political meetings are gaining ground worldwide, to discuss key global and regional problems more openly. Therefore, he praised ASEM for providing an informal consultation forum to discuss the problems of Asia and Europe.

Accordingly, at the meeting on 6 and 7 June, to be co-chaired by the Hungarian Presidency and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the participants will not issue an official and binding conclusion. Instead, they will adopt what is called the Chairman’s Statement, which will include the consensual opinion and position of the 48 ASEM partners on political, economic and socio-cultural issues, in global and regional terms.

The participants of the meeting represent half of the world’s population and 60 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). János Martonyi stressed that strengthening Asian ties is an important element of Hungary’s new foreign relations strategy. Therefore, in addition to the multi-lateral framework, he has organised several bilateral meetings with his Asian counterparts, including the Foreign Minister of Japan and China.

According to preliminary indications, of the 46 countries and 2 institutions, the European Commission and the Secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),33 will be represented at ministerial level, and the rest of the partners will be represented at Secretary of State or other level. János Martonyi stressed that this ratio reflects outstanding participation and other absentees must remain home for reasons related to home policy.

The ASEM meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers is held biannually, in the years between each two summits of ASEM heads of state and government. In order to clarify some misunderstandings published in the press, Mr Martonyi pointed out that the ninth Meeting of Foreign Ministers was held in May 2009 in Hanoi. Therefore, there was no question that the 10th meeting would be in Europe. However, Gödöllo became the final venue as a result of an agreement between the Presidency and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton i. The Hungarian Presidency also took over the task of organising the preparatory meeting from disaster-stricken Japan.

The meeting of ASEM Ministers for Foreign Affairs will be opened by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán i, on 6 June. The first day of the meeting will be chaired by Catherine Ashton and the second by János Martonyi.