Representatives of the two regions welcomed 13 new partners at the opening of the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit October 7 in Hanoi hoping that this inflow and a new generation of leaders would breath new life into a dialogue of nearly a decade that many felt in need of revitalisation and some fresh ideas, the previously-agreed theme of the high-level informal talks.

The incoming members who had just entered the European Union earlier in the year and three recent additions to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also joined seeking to draw advantages from a process that initially had ambitious aspirations of building a new force in the international community. A statement released on the occasion of enlargement said that Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, who hosted the summit, "expressed the conviction that the new members would actively contribute to the joint endeavours to broaden the ASEM process, thereby further revitalising and substantiating the Asia-Europe partnership and enhancing the posture of ASEM in the world." Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia representing the new ASEAN states and Prime Minister Juhan Parts of Estonia also concurred in general, with Parts noting that joining ASEM was not just a "byproduct of EU membership," but an additional means of facing "new global threats and challenges" and expressed the determination to "bring new ideas to ASEM." Japan's Prime Minister also called for concrete measures on ecomonic cooperation as well as other issues.

The summit was expected to culminate with declarations including the opening of an expanding dialogue on "cultures and civilisations" and on closer economic cooperation between the two regions. There was also evidence at the early phase of the summit that the two regions would also find common cause on a wider set of global issues that made their interests somewhat distinct from other powers, ranging from the reform of international institutions to environmental degradation. Numerous introductory speeches also referred to international terrorism and the situation in Iraq. The preparations for these talks included discussions by senior officials and experts who drafted specific studies and recommendations for the summit itself.

The bi-annual summit is also accompanied by related gatherings of business and economic representatives, elements of civil society and cultural events. At this fifth such ASEM summit in the Vietnamese capital, the gathering of non-governmental civil organisations was held a few weeks earlier. The meetings of business and economic leaders taking place just in the early phase of the ASEM official sessions displayed some impatience for tangible results and also agreed to raise a more unified business voice for their requests to be heard by the political leaders.

The ASEM enlargement, which leaders from both regions greeted as a "historic" event, was a difficult decision following years and months of intense controversy because of the division between the EU and ASEAN over the presence the military regime in Myanmar/Burma among the three new ASEAN members. The EU which, along with the US, has applied travel and other sanctiuons against Myanmar and requested the release from house arrest of Nobel-prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, agreed reluctantly to its presence at the Hanoi meeting but opened the session with reminders that it would expand its restrictions to include economic measures if the opposition leader were not released immediately. By common accord, Myanmar was represented at the meeting by its new Foreign Minister rather than its Prime Minister or its military leader. In his introductory presentation, EU Commossion President Romano Prodi, who also joins the summit, referred extensively to the need for improvement of human rights in Myanmar.

The deliberations of this enlarged ASEM 5 summit was opened by talks on both political and economic issues, that turned into a chorus for the wish of a number of participants to be included in a expanded and reformed United Nations Security Council. Germany, Japan, India, Brazil had also pressed their case for a UNSC permanent seat, and Vietnam had also expressed a desire to have a non-permanent seat on the Council as well as using the ASEM meeting to accelerate its entry talks into the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made this UN reform one of the key points in his introductory remarks.

Afternoon discussions on closer economic partnership on October 8 were kicked off by British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in a dramatic appeal for the group to join the combat against climate change which was being increasingly linked to natural disasters and cataclysmic environmental and economic damage. He termed it a "very real issue" in which "the physical evidence is clear" counterbalancing this concept of "burden-sharing" with the official position of the US which has rejected the Kyoto Protocol. He also underlined the development of new remedial technologies and measures such as the new EU emission trading plan.