ABSTRACT
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was conceived in Singapore as an informal meeting between Asian and European leaders to enable the EU to engage dynamic Asian economies in a wide-ranging dialogue. The early 1990s saw the unilateral liberalization of various Southeast Asian economies and the opening up of the Chinese market. At the same time, the European Union was integrating further with the 1986 Single European Act and the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. There were therefore strong economic reasons for the two regions to strengthen dialogue. The EU wanted to partake in the benefits of the strong growth in Asia, and not to lose out to the Americans and Japanese. The Asians were worried about ‘fortress Europe’ with the creation of the Single Market, its focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the internal debates on the Maastricht Treaty. They wanted to be sure that they would not be shut out of Europe. Engaging Europe was also a way of diversifying their economic and foreign policy dependence away from the Americans.
