The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal dialogue and cooperation-based process designed to promote overall Asia-Europe relations on international and inter-regional issues of common interest amongst its 53 Members: 28 European Union member states, 2 other European countries (Norway and Switzerland), the European Union, 21 Asian countries (including ASEAN) and the ASEAN Secretariat.
Established in 1996, Brunei Darussalam is one of the founding members of ASEM together with 15 EU member states, 6 other ASEAN Member States plus China, Japan, Korea and the European Commission.
Brunei Darussalam values ASEM as it is a unique process to foster common understanding and dialogue between Asia and Europe, and creates opportunities for exchanging experiences and share knowledge. It supports the importance of achieving result-oriented tangible outcomes of cooperation among ASEM members as agreed by Leaders at the 10th ASEM Summit in 2014. In this regard, Brunei Darussalam is particularly keen to enhance ASEM cooperation in 4 areas namely SME cooperation, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency Technologies, and Higher Education. Thus far, Brunei Darussalam has initiated projects on biodiversity and entrepreneurship development with the support of other ASEM partners.
ASEM has no Secretariat. An informal group of Coordinators (two from the Asian side and two from the European side) assists in the overall coordination within the ASEM process.
Based in Singapore, the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) remains the only established institution of ASEM that advances mutual understanding and collaboration between the people of Asia and Europe through intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade acts as the national secretariat for ASEM matters.
The official information platform of ASEM can be accessed via www.aseminfoboard.org
