Using a major diplomatic tool

There is no doubt that during the current era of perplexing global vulnerabilities the newly elected French president Francois Hollande is expected to look East instead of West. One of the major diplomatic tools available to France to promote this new orientation might be the dynamic involvement in the preparatory process of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) whose 9th summit is scheduled on November 5-6 this year in Vientiane, Laos, with the overarching theme “Friends for Peace, Partners for Prosperity”.

The Vientiane Summit will deal with significant regional and international issues of common concern for Asian and European countries, including food and energy security, sustainable development, financial and economic crises, climate change, natural disaster responses, socio-cultural cooperation, and future directions of Asem’s activities

Working actively with all Asem’s partners (48 in total), France would have the chance to bring useful contributions to the multi-faceted development of relations between two continents and to the credibility of inter-regional multilateral diplomacy.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok