News

On 5 March, at the information seminar ‘ASEM Dialogue – Opportunities for Lithuania’, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, representatives from Lithuanian state institutions, academia and non-governmental organisations discussed possible Lithuanian goals of cooperation with Asia and the role of Lithuania in strengthening relations between the European Union and Asia.

 ‘Lithuania’s participation in the dialogue between the European Union and Asia (ASEM) opened up new perspectives for the institutions and people of Lithuania. Lithuania is already discovering its own niche in this multilateral forum, triggering the dialogue between Europe and Asia regarding transportation issues,’ Undersecretary of the Ministry Laimonas Talat-Kelpša indicated at the seminar.

State Secretary of the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport and Communications Alminas Mačiulis presented the Lithuanian initiative to hold the ASEM Transportation Ministers’ Meeting in 2009 in Vilnius and the preparative works for the meeting.  It was highlighted that this high-level meeting would be very beneficial to Lithuania, but would also demand a lot of diplomatic and organisational efforts.

Representatives from non-governmental organisations and academic institutions discussed the possibilities for the Lithuanian society that are opened up by the  Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), which finances the exchange of students, scientists, artists and youth from Europe and Asia.

Scientists, experts and representatives from youth organisations who took part in the events of this Foundation indicated that the experience of the Lithuanian people, who had survived difficult years of creating their State, its democratisation, and the opening of the society to the world, was helpful in the dialogue between Asia and Europe.

The live experience of the Lithuanian civic society and its potentiality are particularly interesting for those Asian countries, where democracy is just being created and the civic society is still weak. Participants of the meeting also stressed that events organised by ASEF allowed them not only to get better acquainted with Asia, but also with the variety of European cultures and their problems, and also to strengthen their own European identity.

ASEF was established under the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) by the heads of the States.  The Foundation finances the exchange of students, scientists, artists and youth from Europe and Asia.

ASEM is a dialogue process, which unites 45 partners: 27 European Union Member States, the European Commission and 17 Asian countries (Brunei, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Burma/Myanmar, Mongolia, Pakistan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).