The ASEM at Beijing

The century old maxim of Rudyard Kipling, an English poet of the late 19th and the early 20th Century, that "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet," seems to have lost its vitality as the culture of the West is fast melting with the East and vice versa. In fact, many misinterpreted Kipling as they normally emphasised on the first line of the stanza. In the third line of the same stanza, he says: "But there is neither East nor West."
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has attended the Seventh Session of the 45-member Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held at Beijing on October 24-25. It was for the first time for Pakistan to attend this forum. The Sixth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) that was held at Helsinki, Finland, on September 10-11, 2006, admitted Pakistan into the club with the sole purpose of improving transcontinental ties. India and Mongolia were also admitted as new members from Asia.
While the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria from Europe further enlarged the organisation, Pakistan's case was endorsed by ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea, seemingly a tribute to Pakistan's Vision East Asia devised in 2003 to forge close economic, political, diplomatic, and cultural ties with East Asian countries.
Pakistan also perceives its admission into ASEM as an acknowledgement of its crucial role in war against terror, its status as a nuclear power, an influential member of the Islamic bloc, an active member of a number of regional organisations such as the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), ASEAN Dialogue partner, ASEAN-Regional Forum (ARF), Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), and a prospective member for the East Asia Summit (EAS).
Seemingly, influenced by the Asian initiative of 1955, ASEM was established twelve years ago in 1996 with the sole objective of strengthening relations between gigantic and multi-cultural Asian Continent and Europe. Since 1996, ASEM has held seven meetings every two years. The first was held at Bangkok in 1996, followed by the second meeting that was held at London in 1998.
The third and the fourth meetings were held at Seoul and Copenhagen in 2000 and 2002 respectively. The fifth and the sixth meetings were held at Hanoi and Helsinki in 2004 and 2006 respectively. The group consists of the European Commission, 27 European Union (EU) members, 13 ASEAN-Plus Three members, ASEAN Secretariat, India, Pakistan, and Mongolia. Pakistan, along with India, Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria, ASEM, and the ASEAN Secretariat, was formally admitted as a new member at the Beijing moot of the ASEM.
In this sense, ASEM is an 'organisation within organisations', representing over 60 percent of the world population and 43 Asian-European countries. ASEM addresses political, economic and cultural issues to strengthen the relationship between the continents of Europe and Asia. With this new enlargement, the organisation has become 'truly more Asian' as well as 'truly more European' in nature and functions. There is still, however, more room available to bring more Asian countries into the bloc.