Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem (Source:VNA)

Addressing the 10th ASEM Foreign Ministers Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on June 6, Deputy PM and FM Khiem said with three new members: Russia, Australia and New Zealand, ASEM now represents around 60 percent of the world’s population and contributes more than half of the world’s GDP.

ASEM cooperation has been expanded to various fields and ASEM is affirming its international position through its active involvement in settling pressing global issues, he added.

Khiem expressed his belief that the meeting would create new driving forces and orientations for common awareness and coordination in policies and towards the common goal of building a new Asia-Europe partnership, deepening the understanding between the two regions’ people and establishing strong dialogues among equal partners.

The two-day meeting themed “Working together on non-traditional security challenges” focuses on regional issues, non-traditional security challenges, global issues, post crisis economic recovery, the implementation of the results of the Eighth ASEM Summit and preparations for the ninth ASEM Summit slated for 2012 in Vientiane, Laos.

The meeting is scheduled to adopt a declaration of the meeting’s chair and two reports of the ASEM senior officials meeting./.