CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- ASEM, the Asia-Europe meeting process, was born in a climate of general euphoria in 1996 in Bangkok. The idea to bring together the combined potentials of the European Union and of several important Asian players looked promising and, fundamentally, it is still valid today.
Besides, a great amount of considerable work seems to have been produced in a quiet way by various expert groups. In particular, one should praise the contributions of the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore which focuses on the cultural dimension of cooperation between the two groupings.
Unfortunately, a couple of years later, clouds started appearing in ASEM skies: "ASEM fails to live up to hype," was the title of a dispatch from ASEM's meeting in Seoul in October 2000.