Expansion of cooperation in diverse areas ranging from security, disaster management to education will be focus of the 11th meeting of ASEM Foreign Ministers' two-day meeting beginning Tuesday which will be attended by 49 countries.
To be held in Gurgaon, suburbs of the national capital, the meeting would be attended by 36 Foreign Ministers and 12 Deputy Foreign Ministers from Asia and Europe.
This would be the first time India would be hosting a major ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) ministerial meeting since it joined the grouping in 2007.
The ASEM, which was established in 1996 to bring together Asia and Europe, comprises 49 countries and represents around 60 per cent of the world's population. The ASEM member nations contribute 52 per cent of global GDP and almost 68 per cent of world trade.
The ASEM meeting will be inaugurated by Vice President Hamid Ansari on Tuesday and chaired by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
As the chair of ASEM Foreign Ministers Meeting, India has been pushing for a fresh approach that would "reorient" discussions from dialogue towards actual tangible cooperation, Spokesperson in the MEA Syed Akbaruddin said.
He said the ASEM members are likely to discuss modalities for taking further specific initiatives for enhancing cooperation in areas such as disaster management and mitigation, renewable energy, water and waste management, skill development and food safety.
Akbaruddin said the first plenary session will discuss the "Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities in Asia and Europe" while the second plenary session will focus on "Non-traditional Security Challenges".
