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 An opening ceremony for the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 5) was organised in Ha Noi on Friday morning in the presence of President Tran Duc Luong of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and head delegates from all 39 ASEM member countries.
In his opening speech, President Tran Duc Luong stressed ASEM
5 is mandated to develop suitable measures and steps to reach
the goals reflected in its over-arching and consistent theme
'Further Revitalising and Substantiating Asia-Europe
Partnership'.
He went on to say that the Ha Noi Summit should convey a
strong message of the Leaders' clear determination, long-term
vision and commitment to concrete actions so as to bring the
ASEM process to a new development stage toward a comprehensive
Asia-Europe partnership.
"We expect the Ha Noi Summit to express even stronger ASEM
commitment t broader multilateral cooperation, especially to
the central role of the United Nations in overcoming those
challenges. In this connection, ASEM should make substantial
contributions to the common efforts of the international
community," the president said.
He affirmed that the first-ever enlargement of ASEM at this
Summit constitutes an important step forward in the
development of the process. This enlargement will help tap the
full potential of Asia-Europe partnership, and heighten ASEM's
important role and position in the world arena.
Heads of delegations of ASEM coordination member countries,
including the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Japan Koizumi Junichiro,
President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, and acting
Prime Minister of Denmark Per Stig Moller, delivered speeches
at the the opening ceremony.
They said they valued Viet Nam's preparations for ASEM 5,
stressed the significance of ASEM enlargement at the Ha Noi
summit and called for promotion of Asia-Europe dialogues,
covering politics, economics and culture.
Heads
of 39 ASEM member delegations began closed sessions to discuss
topics of the summit.
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