FINLAND: The sixth Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit will take place in Helsinki this weekend with leaders from 39 states, including Ireland, gathering to discuss co-operation on trade, climate change, terrorism and energy.
Junichiro Koizumi will attend the summit on his last trip abroad as Japanese prime minister and Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao will also be there to discuss EU-China relations following a spate of recent trade disputes with Europe.
ASEM was created 10 years ago as a co-operation forum for Asian and EU states to strengthen dialogue and interaction between the two regions. The meetings are informal with few formal conclusions or concrete results expected. Instead, they offer world leaders a chance to discuss a range of political, economic and cultural issues.
The theme of the summit is "10 Years of ASEM: Global Challenges - Joint Responses". However, in the lead up to the summit, the thorny issue of human rights has dominated the media agenda, in particular the decision by the EU to extend an invitation to the foreign minister of Burma for the high-profile political event.
In January EU foreign ministers agreed to lift a visa ban on high-level Burmese officials entering the union to enable the country's foreign minister, U Nyan Win, to attend the ASEM summit. Under the controversial deal, which was agreed in private, Burmese officials are allowed to enter the EU for meetings where human rights are discussed. The change in policy followed a dispute between Asian states and Europe over a decision by the Netherlands to refuse a visa to Burmese officials for an ASEM finance meeting during its EU presidency in the autumn of 2005.
"It was a classic EU fudge," says Mark Farmaner, campaigns manager at the Burma Campaign UK. "They reinterpreted the visa ban and added a clause that says officials can enter the EU at meetings where human rights are discussed. . . This is a regime whose soldiers rape five-year-olds and that are involved in ethnic cleansing."
Aware of the criticism of the inclusion on the guest list of politicians in Burma's military dictatorship, Finland - holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency - publicly criticised the regime, describing human rights in Burma as "appalling".
"The EU is disappointed with the lack of democratic reforms and human rights in Burma/Myanmar. . . In this regard there has been no progress in the country," said Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja, who nevertheless insisted that engaging at ASEM would help strengthen international pressure on the junta.
EU leaders will raise human rights at a dinner tomorrow.
Several demonstrations are planned in Helsinki by pro-democracy pressure groups, which will focus on human rights abuses in China and in Burma.
Beijing comes to the summit intending to raise the issue of the EU arms embargo on China, which has been in place since the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. But in an interview with The Irish Times, Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen said this would not be addressed by leaders at the meeting. "The summit will address a pro-security agenda, including terrorism and organised crime and global health threats," said Mr Vanhanen, who added ASEM should facilitate more student exchanges between Asia and Europe.
Following the recent collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks, EU leaders will use the meeting to discuss trade opportunities with Asian states. Enlargement will also be high on the agenda. Bulgaria and Romania are set to join the EU in January and the Europeans will propose they join ASEM. The Asians are likely to propose new members for ASEM, with India and Pakistan possibilities.
The meeting will also discuss internal reform of ASEM, which was strongly criticised in a recent joint study compiled by Asian and European think-tanks.
The report criticised its "paucity of tangible results", an "inability to approach political issues" and "forum fatigue". It said ASEM should retain its informality but try to profile concrete functional projects.
Perhaps with this in mind, ASEM leaders are expected to sign a joint declaration on climate change at the meeting.
