Asia Europe Meeting, ASEM FMM14-Madrid, Spain

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Martin Tlapa had a bilateral meeting with the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Md. Shahriar Alam. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 14th Foreign Minister’s Meeting of Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM FMM14) at Madrid, Spain, on December 15-16, 2019. Bangladesh became a member of ASEM in 2012. The ASEM Finance Ministers’ meeting will take place in Dhaka in mid-2020.

ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) is an intergovernmental process established in 1996 to foster dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe. Presently it comprises 53 partners: 30 European and 21 Asian countries, the European Union and the ASEAN Secretariat. ASEM addresses political, economic, financial, social, cultural, and educational issues of common interest in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. The Czech Republic has been a partner of ASEM since 2004. “At a time when multilateralism is under challenge, the value of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) as a defender of rules-based multilateralism and free and fair trade is more important than ever”, said Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Tlapa. A ministerial meeting was attended by a delegation from India led by the Minister of State for External Affairs Vellamvelly Muraleedharan. India joined ASEM in 2008.

Regular participation at ASEM events allows partner countries to make a number of bilateral meetings in one place at the same time. During the ASEM ministerial session in Madrid the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček had bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Japan and Laos and briefly spoke also with the Ministers from Singapore, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.