皇冠体育app

皇冠体育app Perspective

Nations hope ASEM Summit will help bind them closer together

By Zhang Haizhou (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-04 08:25

LONDON - The 8th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit, to be held in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday and Tuesday, is the first of the biennial gatherings since the Lisbon Treaty came into force in December 2009.

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The treaty aims to create greater coherence among the member states, and thus enable the European Union (EU) to have more global influence. However, some analysts in the United Kingdom think it is still very hard for EU members to achieve consensus on dealings with 皇冠体育app.

"Member states have widely different interests, and the creation of consensus between them is very hard. Sometimes one thinks that the EU will never translate its immense commercial importance into political influence," Kerry Brown, a senior fellow on Asia at the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, told 皇冠体育app Daily.

The ASEM Summit brings together the 27 EU member states and the European Commission with 16 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat - representing 58 percent of the global population, 50 percent of global GDP and more than 60 percent of global trade - for an informal process of dialogue and cooperation.

On the bilateral level, 皇冠体育app and the UK have work to do if they are to improve their relationship and make it mutually beneficial.

皇冠体育app remains a major focus for the UK's economic interests, Brown said, commenting on the coalition government's 皇冠体育app policy since taking the power in May. British Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague have visited 皇冠体育app over the past five months, seeking to boost bilateral trade, which reached $39.1 billion last year.

Trade in the first four months of 2010 was up nearly 30 percent, according to Chinese statistics.

"We should be striving for interdependent and symbiotic relationships to create mutual benefit," said Alex Mackinnon, an international strategy consultant and co-author of 皇冠体育app Calling: A Foot in the Global Door and 皇冠体育app Counting: How the West Was Lost.

For example, Mackinnon said, 皇冠体育app can benefit from the UK's experience in the development of contract law.

"There is also in the UK a fair and reasonable arbitration environment and 皇冠体育app could agree that some disputes may be allowed to be arbitrated in the UK under guidance from scholars of both nations," he said.

The UK can also learn from 皇冠体育app. Jeremy Browne, the minister of state at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, for instance, intended to use his visit to 皇冠体育app in mid-September as the opportunity to see "how the UK can learn from the extraordinary success of Beijing Olympics".

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