| |
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Launched on 15 February 1997 in Singapore, the foundation’s mission is to promote greater mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe through closer intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges. This mission draws on the agreement of leaders reached at the inaugural Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Bangkok, to forge a comprehensive partnership and strengthen links between the two regions for mutual benefit. In the past ten years of operation, ASEF has implemented over 310 projects, which have brought together more than 13,500 participants and reached out to an even wider audience in the countries of Asia and Europe. Some of the key flagship programmes include the Asia-Europe Environment Forum, the ASEM Informal Seminars on Human Rights, the Asia-Europe Museum Network (ASEMUS), the ASEF University Programme (AU), the Asia-Europe Editors' Roundtables and numerous dialogues on cultures and civilisations of Asia and Europe. At the 5th ASEM Summit in Hanoi (October 2004), the ASEM process expanded from the original 26 partners to 39, including the 10 new members of the European Union as well as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The subsequent round of ASEM enlargement in 2007 brought in India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria and the ASEAN Secretariat, increasing ASEF’s constituency to a total of 45 partners.For more information on ASEF and its latest and upcoming projects, please visit www.asef.org. 
|
|
