India to take part in Asia-Europe Meeting

India is joining the Asia-Europe Meeting as a new member, participating in the 8th ASEM Foreign Ministers consultation, which opens on Monday. Issues that will be discussed include nuclear proliferation, terrorism, climate change and the situation in Iraq.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will lead a high-level Indian delegation to the two-day meet that brings together foreign ministers from 43 nations in Europe and Asia.

It is being hosted by German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier in his capacity as the current president of the European Council of Ministers.

The biennial ASEM meeting is the biggest event during Germany's six-month presidency of the EU, which expires at the end of June.

The situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, the threats of nuclear proliferation, Iran's nuclear ambitions and the situation on the Korean Peninsula are among the themes on the agenda for discussions on the opening day.

On Tuesday, the ministers will turn their attention to issues such as fight against terrorism, energy security and combating climate change, but no major decisions are expected to emerge from the meeting.

Hamburg city authorities have put in place some of the most stringent security measures to ensure the safety of visiting dignitaries following threats by anti-globalisation campaigners to disrupt the event.

The authorities fear that the anti-globalisation activists might try to use the occasion for a trial run of their massive protest demonstrations planned for the summit of the seven leading industrialised nations and Russia, which Germany will be hosting in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm early next month.

The decision to admit India and four other nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat as new members was taken at the last ASEM summit in Helsinki in September, last year.

The new members, which include Pakistan and Mongolia from Asia and Bulgaria and Romania from Europe will be welcomed to the ASEM community by Steinmeier at a ceremonial opening of the meeting on Monday evening.

The Asia-Europe Meeting is an informal dialogue process initiated in 1996 between the European Union and the ASEAN aimed at strengthening the relations and fostering mutual understanding between the two regions.

The 27 EU member-states, the ten member nations of the ASEAN as well as China, Japan and South Korea are already its members.

With its opening towards South Asia, ASEM's membership encompasses nearly 60 percent of the world's population, 60 percent of world trade and 50 percent of global gross domestic product.

This will reinforce ASEM's role as the primary forum for Asia-Europe dialogue and its capacity to influence the global agenda, according to EU officials.

The ASEM process' main features include providing an open forum for policymakers and officials from Asia and Europe for discussions on political, economic and social issues of common interest and thereby complement the work carried out in bilateral and multilateral fora such as the WTO and the UN.

At their meeting in Hamburg, the Foreign Ministers will begin preparations for the next biennial ASEM summit in Beijing in October 2008.