The Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) refers to the biannual meeting of Heads of State or Government (HOSG) of the fifteen European Union (EU) Member States and the President of the European Commission with HOSG of ten Asian countries (member states of ASEN + China, Japan and Korea). Between meetings of Heads of State or Government, meetings are held at ministerial and official level. It is a multi-dimensional process covering political, economic and cultural matters.

The origins of the ASEM process lay in a mutual recognition, in both Asia and Europe, that the relationship between the two regions needed to be strengthened, reflecting the new global context of the 1990s, and the perspectives of the new century. In July 1994, the EC had already published 'Towards a New Strategy for Asia', stressing the importance of modernising EU's relationship with Asia, and of reflecting properly its political, economic and cultural significance. In November 1994, Singapore had proposed that an EU-Asia summit meeting be held, to consider how to build a new partnership between our two regions. Following on this Singaporean proposal, the first ASEM Summit was held in 1996, giving rise to an ongoing process including Summit-level meetings every second year, Ministerial-level meetings in the intervening years (although now normally once a year) plus a range of meetings and activities at the working level.

Overall co-ordination of the ASEM process is in the hands of Foreign Ministers and their senior officials. They are assisted by an informal co-ordinators meeting, which brings together two co-ordinators from each side (the Presidency and European Commission for the EU and one each from East and South East Asia - currently Japan and Vietnam).

Key characteristics of the ASEM process include:

• its informality (complementing rather than duplicating the work already being carried out in bilateral and multilateral fora);
• its multidimensionality (carrying forward political, economic and cultural dimensions equally, also known as the three pillars)
• its emphasis on equal partnership, eschewing any "aid-based" relationship (taken forward under our bilateral relations) in favour of a more general process of dialogue and co-operation
• and its high-level focus, stemming from the Summits themselves.

While ASEM remains an informal dialogue-based process, there are nevertheless a small number of specific institutions and programmes, which have been created in response to specific Summit decisions. These include the Asia -Europe Foundation, the Asia -Europe Environment Technology Centre and the ASEM Trust Fund.

The objectives of the process are spelt out in the Asia Europe Co-operation Framework (AECF) and the up-dated Asia Europe Co-operation Framework 2000 (AECF 2000), which were agreed by leaders at the London and Seoul summits respectively. While the AECF 2000 in no sense seeks to be an international binding legal agreements, it sets out an agreed framework within which the process operates. It lists the key objectives, priorities and procedures for the process and outlines the vision that ASEM seeks to achieve:

"... to create a new Asia -Europe partnership, to build a greater understanding between the people of the two regions and to establish a strengthened dialogue among equals….ASEM partners have agreed to strive for a common goal of maintaining and enhancing peace and stability as well as promoting conditions conducive to sustainable economic and social development."