Vice President Hamid Ansari arrived here today leading an Indian delegation to the 11th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit being held amid dramatic changes in Europe following Britain's exit from the EU and a global economic slowdown.
The two-day Summit will be held in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia fromtomorrow and the theme for the meeting is "20 Years of ASEM:Partnership for the Future through Connectivity".
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the European Council Donald Tusk,President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogheriniare expected to attend the summit.
The summit comes weeks after Britain voted 48-52 per cent in favour of a British exit, or Brexit, from the EU in a historic referendum on June 23.
After the declaration of the Brexit, the pound fell to its lowest level since 1985 and David Cameron resigned as the Prime Minister of Britain. The Brexit victory sent economic shockwaves through global markets and UK stocks had their worst drop since the financial crisis.
Last month, a worried World Bank slashed its growth forecast for the global economy, saying advanced economies are rebounding more slowly than expected and low commodity prices continue to hurt other countries.
The Bank said that the global economy should grow at just 2.4 per cent this year, the same lethargic pace of 2015 and much slower than the 2.9 per cent it predicted in January.
According to the World Trade Organisation statistics, global trade growth has slowed significantly since 2008, from an average of over 7 per cent per annum between 1990 and 2008, to less than 3 per cent between 2009 and 2015.
The ASEM summit will also be the first major multilateral diplomatic gathering since the July 12 ruling by a UN-backed tribunal that struck down China's claims of "historical rights" in the strategic South China Sea.
Ahead of the summit, Mongolian Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg said the 20th anniversary of the ASEM is a fitting opportunity to reflect both on its past, present and future as well as on the evolving connectivity between Asia and Europe, the world's two ancient cradles of civilisations that have contributed greatly to humanity's development and prosperity.
ASEM's coming into being was a natural response to the dramatic changes in the global political and economic landscape in the mid-1990s following the end of the Cold War, at a time when Asia was emerging as a world economic powerhouse.
ASEM with its distinct signature was an outcome
consistent with the time, Saikhanbileg said.
ASEM comprises of 53 entities - 51 countries from Asia and Europe and two regional bodies - the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat. It represents around 62.3 per cent of the world's population, 57.2 per cent of the global GDP and almost 60 per cent of the world's trade.
Twenty years is a short span of time in human history, and yet the global and regional settings today are already fundamentally different from what they were two decades ago, he said.
"In spite of the challenges of rapid change, ASEM has withstood the test of time. Partly to the credit of ASEM dialogue and initiatives, Asia and Europe today enjoy much wider connectivity and greater engagement than 20 years ago," Saikhanbileg said.
He said Mongolia's view is that the ASEM dialogue should continue to build on political, economic and socio-cultural pillars.
"We firmly believe that trade and investment, and the robust role played by the private sector is crucial for Asia-Europe economic connectivity," the prime minister said.
"Twenty five years ago, Mongolia embarked on the path of free market economy and political democracy. We are fully aware of the potential that the business community can bring into trade and investment between the two continents," he added.
Ahead of Ansari's visit, Secretary (East), Preeti Saran said that since the main thrust of the Summit was connectivity, the Vice President would focus on that particular theme.
"When we look at connectivity, we look at not just the vast geographical space that connects India as being part of Asia to Europe, but we also look at other aspects of connectivity including digital connectivity, historical and civilisational connectivity, cultural connectivity, people-to-people connectivity.
"So, I would imagine that the Vice President will focus on all the broad aspects encompassing the theme of connectivity. Of course the current theme that is of huge concern to us as a country and the global community is terrorism. So I would imagine that that would definitely come up for discussion," she added.
