Faced with a number of existential questions about its identity and achievements after its initial decade, the Asia-Europe Summit Meeting (ASEM) in Helsinki September 11 and 12 succeeded in providing continuing hope it could become a genuine force in the international community.

While the Summit and its discussions did cover the usual multitude of issues such gatherings must be seen to be addressing, several of the participants and observers pointed generally to the agreement to make a determined joint push to restore an international emphasis on multilateral approach to global problems, to develop their own joint programmes for sustainable development and energy security, and to engage in a genuine dialogue of cultures and civilisations as illustrating an more positive and optimistic shift in the ASEM summit working culture.

In its first decade, the five previous ASEM Summits had either focused on the single dominant preoccupation of the moment, such as the international financial crisis, terrorism or the momentary rapprochement between the two Koreas, or else discussed so many issues, projects or joint activities as to dissipate efficiency or credibility.

Should this pattern be maintained in the future, it would establish a division of labour between the Summits every two years to concentrate on broad overarching issues, while more frequent Ministerial, official working level and non-official academic and other expert gatherings would address the myriad of details which have been the hallmark of the ASEM process at all levels in the past.

A number of perennial agenda ASEM items resurfaced in Helsinki, such as the suspended Doha Round of international trade negotiations and human and political rights in Burma/Myanmar. The awkward presence of the military regime from Burma/Myanmar in the midst of the 36 ASEM participants, a controversy which had nearly paralysed the meetings in the past.

The meeting was said by the Finnish hosts, including Prime Minister Matti Vanhahen, to be the largest such international event staged in the country. It was agreed in Helsinki that the next Summit in 2008 would be held in Beijing, the same year the Chinese capital hosts the world Olympic Games.

The President and Prime Minister invoked the background of the ASEM process and the main agenda for the two-day sessions. These were highlighted by plans for exchanges on UN reform and multilateralism, the dialogue of cultures and civilisations, sustainable development including energy security, and globalisation and competition.

Among the major, largely unexpected, announcements was the declaration that the ASEM members would invite Pakistan, India, Mongolia and the ASEAN Secretariat to join them from Asia, along with Bulgaria and Romania as they accede to EU membership. The question of EU enlargement had previously been a contentious one which had momentarily paralysed contacts over the membership of Burma/Myanmar, ultimately resolved prior to the Hanoi 2004 Summit, when the EU agreed the problem country could participate at a lower level. The issue of further EU enlargements and the new EU members' automatic participation also had been an unsettled question. The inclusion of India, which had recently indicated a lack of interest in joining the ASEM process, and Pakistan, which had formally requested membership, would change the nature and centre of gravity of the ASEM process, which for its first decade had been a link between Europe and East Asia. A number of analysts afterwards also gave a variety of interpretations to the enlargement decision. One senior EU official categorised the move as "adding a real Asian dimension to the work of ASEM."

In another unusual development, Vietnam sought to convince the others to accept Russia as a participant, a move that met with some scepticism and doubt about Russia's "footprint" in Asia, according to one Asian official in Helsinki.

This regular Asia-Europe Summit was once again marked by the noted absences of European leaders, such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair on a delicate and high-profile visit to the Middle East instead of the Helsinki gathering with Asians, which he had skipped on several occasions other than one summit in London.

Also addressing the meeting was the new Vietnamese Prime Minister, representing the previous host country. He suggested that the essential focus should remain cooperation in economic, trade and financial matters and science and technology, although he also advised other dialogues on more directly human subjects as AIDS. And he also pointed to a forthcoming Information Technology Ministers meeting in Hanoi and the need to deepen cooperation on energy issues, which Vietnam also proposed to host.

As usual, the ASEM setting also served as an opportunity for numerous bilateral summit contacts, not only between the EU and its member states and their Asian counterparts, but between Asian leaders as well. Among the more noteworthy were the annual EU-China Summit, the EU-Korea Summit and a meeting with the new Vietnamese Prime Minister and EU leaders. Among the most visible Asian contacts including a session between the Chinese Prime Minister and the South Korean President, which according to Korean reports focused on the running dispute between the two over their divergent history of the Korean Peninsula and region. As usual the Japanese Prime Minister held no meetings with his irritated Korean and Chinese neighbours, in this his last such Summit before his departure in a few weeks.

After the meeting, a number of senior officials and unofficial analysts commented on the results, with one senior EU official remarking that ASEM "represents an extraordinary opportunity for cooperation," especially in the light of what he said was "an immense, immense demand for EU cooperation in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere." He added that ASEM, "if it has the political will can really change matters on a global scale."

Indonesian analyst Yusuf Wannadi, who was in Helsinki during the ASEM activities and reported on them to an audience in Brussels organised by the European Policy Centre on September 12 noted that the ASEM partners had agreed to reinforce a multilateral approach to problem-solving and to encourage the US to make such policy adjustments in order to assure the US is not "deligitmised." On the other hand, he urged Europe to relax its "obsession" with China and balance its relations with the rest of Asia.

A number of other analysts also pointed to the need for continued and additional focus on the related work of non-official actors in the ASEM process, ranging from NGOs to the business community, and also pointed to the increased official acceptance of the need for a "social dimension" to the ASEM process.