New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS) In his first overseas visit after taking charge as foreign minister, Salman Khurshid will go to Laos next week to represent India at the 9th summit of the 48-member Asia-Europe meeting which seeks to enhance multi-faceted interaction between the two continents.
Khurshid will speak on “global issues” and on “future direction of ASEM” at the two-day summit of the trans-continental grouping which will be held in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, Nov 5-6.
He “would also be having bilateral meetings with other foreign ministers on the sidelines of the summit”, the external affairs ministry said here Thursday.
India has been proactively raising its profile in the ASEM since it joined the grouping in 2007. India is among top contributors after Japan and the 27-nation European Union. New Delhi will host the meeting of the foreign ministers of ASEM countries in November next year.
The ASEM summit, in one of least developed countries in Southeast Asia, takes place against the backdrop of the larger shift of economic power from the West to the rest which is epitomised by the festering recession in the eurozone and the rising economic weight of the Asian continent.
The ASEM is home to 60 percent of the world’s population, 50 percent of global GDP and 60 percent of global trade.
Underlining India’s increasing stakes in the ASEM, New Delhi hosted a two-day meeting of the board of governors of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the institutional arm of the ASEM, Oct 12.
ASEM, an inter-regional forum, consists of, among others, the European Commission, the 27 members of the European Union (EU), the thirteen members of the ASEAN plus 3 (Japan, South Korea and China) regional grouping, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Australia, Russia and New Zealand.
ASEF, which seeks to promote greater mutual understanding between Asia and Europe through intellectual, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, has completed 500 projects so far, bringing together more than 15,000 direct participants in Asia and Europe.
