ASEM is a grouping of 49 Asian and European countries and two regional organizations namely, the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat. ASEM represents around 60% of world’s population, 52% of the global GDP and almost 68% of world trade.

The ASEM senior official which met in the last two days suggested setting up of a Working Group on a Press and Public Awareness Strategy. This will take ASEM into the homes and offices of people across Asia and Europe and allow to bring in members of civil society, business, media and parliamentarians as partners in strengthening ASEM as a bridge between the two continents.

The senior officials also recommended the setting up of another Working Group to devise a road map for the 20th anniversary celebrations of ASEM in 2016.

The Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari inaugurating the two-day 11th meeting of ASEM foreign ministers here on Monday suggested “dialogues have to be relevant in situational terms.”

He said : “We are witness today to important evolution in the political-security and socio-economic architectures across the two continents, as also globally.”

The theme of the 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is ‘ASEM : Bridge to Partnership for Growth and Development’

On the issue of terrorism the Vice President said : “the international community is also facing a degree of unprecedented sophistication in non-traditional security threats. These transcend national borders and traditional response patterns and necessitate considerably higher levels of comprehension and cooperation.”

In the context of the strategic importance of Asia-Europe partnership, he said : “We should endeavour to take it beyond being a forum for political dialogue only, make it reach out to the people of Member States and create wider stake-holding amongst economic partners and civil society. We should invest its outcomes with tangible deliverables.”

Ansari called for “collective action” under ASEM to strengthen the understanding between the peoples of two continents. “While Asia has the strength of emerging markets and its human resource potential, Europe has existing capacities and an edge in technological innovations. There are natural and beneficial partnerships here, which can be strengthened further. Bringing about greater focus on areas of relevance for developing countries and emerging markets will allow us to tap into areas of positive growth and prosperity,” he said.

On dealing with regional and global issues, he suggested to arrive at “understanding and consensus.”

Vice President Ansari had led the Indian delegation to the 8th ASEM Summit in 2010 in Brussels.

Chairing the 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid in his opening remarks said : “I hope that our discussions over the next two days will move ASEM beyond a declaratory political dialogue, towards tangible deliverables and concrete action in a more determined manner.”

At the margins of the ASEM foreign ministers’ meeting Khurshid had bilateral meetings with the German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, Portugal foreign minister Rui Machete, Slovenia foreign minister Karl Erjavec, Bulgaria foreign minister Kristian Vigenin, Switzerland Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Didier Burkalter and Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni.

Yesterday, Khurshid had bilateral meetings are Titus Corlatean of Romania, Linas Linkevics of Lithuania, Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland, Janos Martonyi of Hungary, George Vella of Malta, Ioannis Kasoulides of Cyprus, Jan Kohout of Czech Republic and Borge Brende of Norway.

He also met the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi at the sidelines of the third meeting of Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers.

The two-day 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is slated to discuss cooperation in disaster management and mitigation, renewable energy, small and medium sized enterprises, water and waste management, education and skill development and food security, apart other global and regional issues. About 36 foreign ministers and 12 deputy foreign ministers from Asia and Europe are participating. All the 51 members of ASEM are represented in this meeting.

India for the first time is hosting a major ASEM ministerial since it joined the group in 2007. The upcoming ASEM Summit will be held in Italy.

As per restructured format for the ministerial two plenary sessions were held on the opening day with the themes ‘Economic Growth and Sustainable Development : Challenges and Opportunities in Asia and Europe’ and ‘Non-traditional Security Challenges’. On the final day there will be a free flowing discussions initiated by the Chair on ‘Regional and International Issues’.

Inter-dependence, equal partnership, mutual benefit, an open and evolutionary process, as well as the desire to give equal impetus to the three key dimensions of political dialogue, economic collaboration and socio-cultural cooperation are the hallmark of the ASEM process.

At the margins of the 11th ASEM foreign ministers’ meeting, India is also hosting alongwith Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), a permanent institution of ASEM, the 9th ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium on the theme ‘Media and the Green Growth : Reporting on Sustainable Development in Asia and Europe’. The colloquium will gather around 30 experienced journalists and about 8 environmental experts from Asia and Europe.

In early 2014, India would also be co-hosting with ASEF a two week project on ‘Sustainable Urbanisation in Heritage Cities’ aimed at students and young professionals from ASEM partner countries as well as seeking to raise awareness about cultural heritage as a crucial component in the process of sustainable urbanization in ASEM countries.