Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 342: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the EU proposes to hold an EU-Asia summit to enable the EU to position itself to take maximum advantage of the growing economies in Asia, including China, Singapore and India, and the investment and employment opportunities that these economies could bring to the EU and Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39690/10]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The emergence of China and India as global economic powers in recent years makes Asia a key regional partner for the EU. Relations between the EU and Asia are organised on different levels. There are the region to region arrangements; there are relations between the EU and individual Asian countries; and there are the bilateral relations of EU Member States with individual countries. Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is the main multilateral forum for high level regional dialogue and cooperation between the European Union and Asia. It was established in 1996 and involves virtually the whole of Asia, including Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This year, Australia, New Zealand and Russia have been admitted to the group.

ASEM leaders meet at summits every two years. The 8th ASEM Summit was held in Brussels on 4-5 October. It brought together the leaders of 46 countries, together representing half of the world's GDP, almost 60% of the world's population and 60% of global trade. The summit highlighted the strong links between the EU and Asia and gave new momentum to the relationship. Leaders addressed a wide range of issues under four themes - global financial and economic governance; sustainable development; international cooperation on global and regional issues and the future of ASEM. A key outcome of ASEM 8 was the Brussels Declaration on More Effective Global Economic Governance.

The Taoiseach attended the ASEM Summit where he had the opportunity to meet in the margins with a number of Heads of Government of participating countries, including the Chinese Premier. He also participated in a breakfast meeting with the Asia Europe Business Forum, where leaders met senior business representatives from Asia and Europe.

The EU is keenly aware of the necessity to take full advantage of annual summits with key partner countries in Asia to strongly promote its economic and trade agenda. This was a key issue highlighted at the September European Council meeting on external relations which approved a series of internal measures to improve the effectiveness of the EU's approach to its strategic partners.

During 2010, the EU also held separate bilateral summits with Japan (April), China (October) and Korea (October), while a summit with India will take place in December. At these high level meetings, the EU strongly promotes the trade and investment dimension of the relationship. During the summit with Korea, leaders signed the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which is the largest agreement of its type ever entered into by the EU. The EU is currently negotiating major partnership agreements with China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, while there are also plans to seek new trade agreements with Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.