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uropean and Asian countries are ready to discuss various economic, political and security issues in a bid to strengthen their partnership during an upcoming biennial meeting to be held in Milan, Italy.

European Union Ambassador to Indonesia Olof Skoog said the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on Oct. 16-17 would take the theme, '€œResponsible Partnership for Growth and Security'€.

The 10th meeting will host participants from 20 Asian countries and 30 European countries, including three non-EU countries of Norway, Russia and Switzerland. There would also be representatives from the EU, the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Council, he added.

'€œWe have engaged in various dialogues [with Asian countries] for a long time. The dialogues that have been scheduled in ASEM will also be important because they will help strengthen mutual understanding between European and Asian countries. The meeting'€™s partners also tend to increase. Croatia and Kazakhstan will likely join the event this year,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said the ninth ASEM Summit in Vientiane, Laos, in 2012 saw representatives from 51 partners, up from 48 partners at the eighth summit in Belgium in 2010 and 45 partners at the seventh summit in China in 2008.

When the first ASEM was held in 1996, there were participants from only 15 EU member states, seven ASEAN member countries as well as from China, Japan and South Korea.

The importance of this summit had encouraged more partners to attend, said Skoog, a Swedish diplomat who has been the EU ambassador to Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam and ASEAN since 2013.

He said this year'€™s summit, as reflected in its theme, would consist of two plenary sessions. Participants will discuss how to promote financial and economic cooperation through enhanced Europe-Asia connectivity in the first session, while the second session will discuss the Europe-Asia partnership in addressing global matters in an interconnected world.

'€œWe have an interest to strengthen our economies and to pursue structural reforms in Europe and Asia. We want to strengthen our mutual trade and investment in Asia,'€ Skoog said.

He said that during the summit, the partner states would also determine how to narrow the huge economic gaps among ASEAN member states. For example, Singapore has recorded strong economic growth, while other countries, such as Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, are less developed.

'€œWe are working very hard to lift these less-developed countries to a higher level through a massive amount of cooperation,'€ he said.

According to official data from ASEM, the EU has become one of the leading trading partners of every Asian country with an annual average growth rate in trade of 5.8 percent from 2008 to 2012. In 2013, Asian partners accounted for 15.3 percent of EU imports with a value of ¤678 billion (US$866 billion) and 125 percent of exports worth ¤573 billion.

 The EU is also a major investor in Asia. In 2012, 21.4 percent of the EU'€™s outward investment '€” totaling ¤57 billion '€” was destined for Asia, while 13 percent, or ¤38 billion, originated in the region. (alz)