Beijing, October 23
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here today to take part in the Asia-
Europe (ASEM) Meeting, which is expected to be dominated by the raging global
economic turmoil.

With the participation of Manmohan Singh, India would be making its debut at the highest level at the summit, which begins here tomorrow.

On the sidelines of the seventh ASEM summit, Singh, who arrived here after a three-day visit to Japan, would have meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

He would also meet Presidents of Mongolia and Bulgaria Nambaryn Enkhbayar and Georgi Parvarov; and Italian and Vietnamese Prime Ministers Romano Prodi and Nguyen Tan Dung in a bid to promote bilateral ties and exchange views on issues of common interests.

There is no official word yet as to whether Singh would formally meet Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is also here to attend the summit.

India would be attending the summit at the Head of Government level for the first time. In May 2007, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had attended the ministerial meeting of the ASEM in Hamburg, Germany.

ASEM is a grouping of 27 European Union members, 10 ASEAN members and the three North-East Asian members-China, Japan and South Korea. The theme this time is ‘Vision and action - Towards a win-win solution’.

Apart from India, Pakistan, Mongolia and the ASEAN Secretariat are to participate in the Beijing summit for the first time, just as Bulgaria and Romania are doing so from the European Union’s side.

At the summit, the leaders will focus their discussions on the political, economic, social and cultural issues, including those related to sustainable development.

“It will provide a very good opportunity for us to exchange views on a variety of topics including, of course, the present international financial situation,” according to N Ravi, Secretary (East) of the external affairs ministry. — PTI