ABSTRACT
One of the specific achievements of the eighth ASEM summit held in Brussels on 4-5 October 2010 was that it admitted the Russian Federation, Australia and New Zealand as new members. It was not the fact that ASEM enlarged that was so peculiar. New members had joined ASEM before. At ASEM 5 in Hanoi in October 2004, ten new European Union (EU) member states who had joined the EU earlier that year were admitted together with three Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states who were part of ASEAN since 1997 (Myanmar and Laos PDR) and 1999 (Cambodia). Two years later, at ASEM6 in Helsinki in September 2006, two additional EU member states (Bulgaria and Romania), three additional Asian states (India, Pakistan and Mongolia) and the ASEAN Secretariat were welcomed into ASEM. They would participate in their first ASEM summit when it met for the seventh time in Beijing in October 2008.
