Focusing on the future of Asia and Europe

The last sentence of the article by John Gray contains a most serious warning. Indeed, Europe looks like floundering in crisis and stagnation for years and possibly decades to come, while Asia and the world move rapidly on.

This assessment comes after the recent 10th Asia Europe Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok. In the balanced formulations contained in the chairman’s statement, the participants clearly acknowledged the necessity of strengthening inter-regional financial cooperation with Europe. A practical appeal was addressed to European and Asian businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to cooperate more with each other in order to broaden investment and trade flow between the regions.

The conclusions of the meeting will be presented at the 9th Asem Summit on November 5 in Vientiane, Laos. This summit is expected to offer to Asia and Europe additional guidelines for partnership enhancement, having in mind realistic and credible predictions that agonising new financial crises are inevitable.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok