Asia-Europe meeting boosts peace, stability, prosperity Deputy PM Nguyen Manh Cam (right) meets European Commission President Romano Prodi. The third Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM III) closed in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, on October 21 with the adoption of 16 separate measures, including the establishment of a 'Trans-Eurasia Information Network.' At the meeting, opened on October 19, leaders from 25 Asian and European countries agreed to boost peace, stability and prosperity in the two regions. They unanimously adopted the Seoul Declaration for Peace on the Korean Peninsula which supports the peace process on the peninsula and calls for co-operation between ASEM members and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In his closing speech, RoK President Kim Dae-Jung expressed his appreciation for the meeting's results, calling them collectively a "major step forward" in Asia-Europe relations. At a banquet in the evening of October 20, the RoK president said that the re-opening of the north-south Korean railway and construction of a Japan-Korea submarine rail would link Japan, Asia and Europe. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said it was his wish that the route be called the ASEM railway . ASEM includes the RoK, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam from Asia and European nations: Austria, Belgium, the UK, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden. (VNA)
