Forest issues were first taken into the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) agenda in the first ASEM Science and Technology Minister’s Meeting held in Beijing, China on October 14-15, 1999. Key priorities for potential cooperation, including forestry, sustainable development of ecosystems and environmental protection, were incorporated in the Chairman’s Statement of the meeting.   In the 3rd ASEM Summit Meeting held in Seoul, Korea on October 19-21, 2000, the initiative for Scientific and Technological Cooperation on Forest Conservation and Sustainable Development was enrolled. As follow-up actions and outputs, the ASEM Symposium on Forest Conservation and Sustainable Development was held in Guiyang, China on July 16-20, 2001, and the ASEM Workshop on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forests took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand on April 19-21, 2002.   The ASEM Symposium on Urban Forestry is of significant importance for promoting further cooperation and exchange among ASEM members in the rapid urbanization process and advancing urban ecologicalization and sustainable development.   On November 12th -13th of 2008, the 3rd Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Symposium on Urban Forestry was held in Guangzhou, which was jointly sponsored by Chinese Academy of Forestry, Planning and Research Center for Forest Landscape of the University of Copenhagen…

The second ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting was held in Berlin on 9 and 10 October 1999. It was attended by ministers of economics, trade and industry from ten Asian and fifteen European nations – with Finland acting also as President of the Council of the European Union - and by the EC Commissioner responsible for trade matters.

The first ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting (EMM) was held in Makuhari, Japan, on 27-28 September and attended by the Ministers responsible for economic affairs from ten Asian and fifteen European nations, with the Luxembourg Minister of Economy acting also as Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the Vice-President of the European Commission. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of International Trade and Industry Mitsuo Horiuchi of Japan.