Helsinki, Finland, 4 - 5 May 2006
1. The Fourth Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP IV) was held in Helsinki on 4-5 May 2006. At the invitation of Mr Paavo Lipponen, Speaker of the Parliament of Finland, parliamentarians from ASEM member countries and the European Parliament attended the Meeting. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Asia-Europe Business Forum and the Asia-Europe People's Forum were invited to attend the Meeting as Guests of the Host. (List of delegates available at www.asep4.fi )
Mr Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister, addressed the Meeting as representative of the Government of Finland, and as the host of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM VI) to be held in Helsinki in September 2006.
2. Inaugurating the Meeting, Mr Paavo Lipponen, Speaker of Parliament, warmly welcomed the parliamentarians and guests to the Meeting.
3. ASEP Parliamentarians, recalling their previous Meetings in Strasbourg (1996), Manila (2002) and Hue City (2004), held comprehensive, in-depth and fruitful discussions on a wide range of issues of shared interest and concern. The year 2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Asia-Europe partnership through ASEM. ASEP Parliamentarians salute ASEM and its valuable work in its Tenth Year. The Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership also marks its tenth anniversary. ASEP Parliamentarians want to celebrate this tenth anniversary of closer Asia-Europe cooperation by forging a stronger link between ASEM and ASEP, thus strengthening the parliamentary dimension of the Asia-Europe partnership.
International Cooperation and Multilateralism
4. ASEP Parliamentarians express their common view that multilateral cooperation and strong international institutions remain the basis for developing international cooperation. Working through the United Nations and developing regional and inter-regional cooperation is crucial to world peace, security and the harmonious development of international relations.
5. ASEP parliamentarians emphasize their commitment to a strong, open, transparent and fair trading system. ASEP parliamentarians agreed to renew their call to ASEM to contribute to the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda. WTO agreements need to ensure an ambitious, balanced and feasible liberalization agenda. Both Asia and Europe have a crucial stake in ensuring that the world economic system develops in a balanced fashion to ensure fair globalisation, which brings benefits to all, and to foster economic competitiveness both in Asia and Europe.
Strengthening the Asia-Europe Partnership
6. ASEP Parliamentarians underline the fundamental importance of developing closer ties between Asia and Europe as a crucial pillar in the global system. ASEM provides an important linkage between these regions and should be further developed. ASEP Parliamentarians note that economic ties – trade and investment - between Asia and Europe are deepening at an ever growing pace and should be complemented by developing a more comprehensive political dialogue, promoting and restoring human rights, furthering cultural exchanges and developing mutual understanding and action over common problems facing humanity, inter alia development, security and the environment.
7. The economic inter-connectedness of Asia and Europe is growing at an ever increasing pace. ASEP Parliamentarians underscore that economic integration and exchanges need to be complemented by deepening political cooperation in addressing issues of common interest. Transport and logistics between Asia and Europe can be further strengthened by also developing land-links between Asia and Europe. Energy policy – both production and conservation - should also have a more prominent role in Asia-Europe cooperation.
8. ASEP Parliamentarians underscore that further efforts should be made to achieve closer ASEM Economic Partnership. ASEM governments should engage the business community and the Asia-Europe Business Forum more directly in the strengthening of economic cooperation between Asia and Europe.
9. ASEP Parliamentarians emphasize that the world is indivisible and interdependent. Persistent imbalances exist in development, prosperity, social and normative conditions, resources and environmental circumstances. These imbalances are not sustainable in the long run and further efforts should be made by the international community, regional cooperation and states themselves to address these imbalances between regions, states and within countries.
10. ASEP Parliamentarians underline the fact that the security agenda, relevant to today's world and also pertinent to Asia-Europe Cooperation, is wider than ever and needs to focus on issues that are predominantly non-military by nature. These wider security concerns, so called new threats, include issues like global pandemics, communicable diseases, natural disasters, illegal migration, terrorism, human trafficking and transnational organised crime at large. Open societies are increasingly vulnerable to these new threats and ASEP Parliamentarians emphasize the fact that increasing international cooperation is the best way to deal with these new threats and call on ASEM to take a proactive approach in dealing with this security agenda.