INT47
International/
Diplomacy/
Business Asian, European leaders urge joint action on
financial crisis Lead Beijing, Oct 24 DPA The largest-to-date gathering of Asian and European leaders opened
Friday to discuss how to respond to the global
financial crisis and combat
climate change. "In the
face of this global challenge, the
international community should enhance
policy coordination, strengthen
cooperation and make a common response,"
Chinese President Hu Jintao said in his opening speech to the at the seventh biannual
Asia-
Europe Meeting Asem. The
financial crisis triggered by the US sub-prime
mortgage collapse caused shockwaves in
international financial markets and a serious impact on economic development, Hu told leaders of 27 European
Union EU member
states and 16 Asian nations. "At this crucial moment, confidence is more important than anything else," Hu said. "
Only with strong confidence and concerted efforts can we
weather the
crisis," he said. EU President Jose Manuel Barroso urged the leaders to find "global solutions to the severe
financial, economic, environmental, developmental and socio-cultural challenges" the world is facing. "These are unprecedented times that require unprecedented measures," Barroso said in his speech. Despite the EU, US and other
economies taking "decisive measures," he said, "
financial market strains are bound to persist for quite some time and there are serious concerns for growth prospects worldwide." "Just as
Europe and
Asia cannot avoid the effects of this
crisis so must they be involved with their global partners in finding solutions to it," Barroso said. Serge Abou, the EU's ambassador to
China, told
reporters earlier that talks on the
financial crisis were expected to be "very intense." EU officials said separate "clusters" of
discussions were planned on
banking and
financial systems, and that the EU nations hoped the
meeting would promote
trade talks between the two continents. This year's Asem summit includes several new members, notably
India and
Pakistan, meaning the delegates represent a combined 50-60 percent of the global
population and
economy.
France, which holds the rotating EU presidency,
will present an Asem statement on
climate change under the theme of "
Vision and Action: Towards a win-win Solution."
Host China has drafted another joint statement on the
financial crisis, while the EU wants to mark the 60th anniversary of the universal declaration on
human rights with a "summit commitment to implementing
human rights," said EU officials in
Brussels. The officials said the EU would push for "the maximum commitment we can get" from
Asia on signing up to a post-Kyoto deal on
climate change at talks in
Copenhagen in December 2009. The Asian nations attending the summit are the 10 members of the
Association of
South-
East Asian Nations,
China,
Japan,
South Korea and
India,
Pakistan and
Mongolia. --DPA dkg 480
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