Asia and EU wrestle crisis in messy diplomatic dance

International Herald Tribune

Reuters
Published: October 22, 2008

By Chris Buckley

Dozens of Asian and European leaders representing half the global economy gather this week confronting a world financial crisis but their talks are more likely to cloak differences than galvanise action.

At the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) opening on Friday, the 27 EU member states and the European Commission will trade views with Japan, China and India and 13 other Asian countries on the global downturn, climate change and international security.

Beijing, this year's host, has stressed the value of the biennial leaders' meeting in joining two regions that account for two thirds of world trade and 60 percent of global output.

"If everyone doesn't meet like this, then it's much easier for misunderstandings to arise," said Zhou Hong, an expert on relations with Europe at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Europe is fairly united on many issues, of course, but Asia is much more disparate, so achieving consensus among all 45 members is never easy. But we do need it now."

The meetings make no binding decisions, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose bailout of the British banking system swiftly became a model for the United States and many EU countries, will not attend.

Yet even a symbolic flourish of unity may help as governments seek to steady themselves in the financial turmoil: the two-day meeting will issue a closing statement likely to stress a shared purpose in the face of financial meltdown and economic slowdown.

"The main thing is to come out with strong united messages conveying confidence -- confidence that, yes, we can improve the international financial system," France's ambassador to Beijing, Herve Ladsous, speaking last week, said of the ASEM meeting.

DIVISIONS AND FRUSTRATIONS

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have said they would use the gathering to urge China and India to help shore up world growth and join a proposed summit on the financial crisis.

The meeting is also likely to produce a broad statement on climate change, with Europe seeking to coax China, India and other developing countries into firmer commitments on limiting greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.

There will also be bilateral and regional get-togethers on the sidelines of the formal meeting that may issue sharper statements on the global economic woes and regional issues.

The ASEAN grouping of Southeast Asian states is set to meet along with Japan, China and South Korea to consider how to beef up a regional mechanism for emergency financial support.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, known for his hawkish views on China, is due to have his first meeting with the country's leaders since he recently took office.

With Europe struggling to pull together over financial policy and greenhouse gas goals, and with the Asian countries even more fractured, ASEM will be more a stiff diplomatic ball than a hard-nosed negotiating bout.

"The fact that the EU is not a very effective negotiating partner, that it can be so opaque and complex, is a frustration for China, I'm sure," said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform in London. "But China is also a frustratingly opaque and rigid partner, so the EU is also frustrated."

"WEAK AND MESSY"

The ASEM meetings began 12 years ago in an effort to narrow the diplomatic distance between Europe and Asia. As it gathered economic clout, Brussels has also sought to put its stamp on international affairs.

Japan, India and other Asian powers have also looked to Europe for more trade, investment and diplomatic support. And China has seen it as a potential counterweight to American power. But Beijing has felt frustrated by the uncertainties of negotiations involving the European Commission and the EU member states, with their sometimes competing demands and gripes.

In recent years its European diplomacy has focussed more on the major European national capitals -- London, Paris and Berlin. For their part, the Asian countries differ vastly in size, development and interests. Hostility divides many of them.

Thailand and Cambodia will attend, despite their sputtering border dispute. Myanmar, under the thumb of a military junta, is also a member. Rivals India and Pakistan will also be there.

When the leaders and ministers gather in the grandiose Great Hall of the People, they will bring all these differences with them. And even usually polite Chinese experts acknowledge the format does not make for dazzling diplomatic footwork.

Asian nations are "traditionally more accustomed to bilateralism, not multilateralism, and prefer to attend ASEM with their own respective stances," concluded a study of China-EU relations by Beijing scholars published in May.

Before each meeting, the Asian leaders gather to coordinate their positions.

"But compared to the relatively integrated EU, their voice is weak and messy." (Additional reporting by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Nick Macfie and Valerie Lee)