India to become member of ASEM in October 2008

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) India's membership of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) will be formalised at Beijing in October 2008, Mr Geoffrey Barrett, adviser, Directorate General for External Relations, European Commission, said today.

Despite India's application for membership having been accepted at the "historic" 6th ASEM meeting at Helsinki in September 2006, the country along with Pakistan, Mongolia and the ASEAN Secretariat from Asia will have to wait till it is formally admitted into the grouping constituted of 13 Asian and 25 European countries, he said.

From the European side, membership was expanded to include Bulgaria and Romania.

He told newspersons here that prior to its formal admission, India, as a de facto member, can still attend the deliberations of the Environment Ministers meeting, the Cultural Ministers meeting to be held at Kuala Lumpur in June and the Small and Medium Enterprises conference in China in autumn.

Mr Barrett is here on a two-day visit as part of the ASEM familiarisation exercise, ahead of the grouping's Senior Official Meeting (SOM) due to be held in Berlin on January 25.

Admitting that there is an "information deficit" regarding the ASEM and the nature of its work in India, he said ''information deficit works both ways and not enough is known about this country.'' During his two-day visit here, the visiting ASEM representative will hold meetings with officials from the External Affairs and Commerce Ministries besides the European Union member state missions in the country.

ASEM, he said, acts as a facilitator and convenor allowing the sidelines of its meetings to be used for informal get-togethers between diverse and interested parties or countries.

Describing the grouping as "a forum where we seek common solutions to common problems", he said it has focused on big international agenda such as climate change, sustainable development, security issues on counter-terrorism, inter-faith diversities and globalisation.

UNI