130 youths for Asem summit in Mongolia

PETALING JAYA: Some 130 youth representatives from 51 Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) countries, including Malaysia, will attend the five-day 7th Model Asem in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Themed 20 years of Asem: Partnership for Future through Connectivity, participants will address inter-regional issues on politics, economic and socio-cultural between Asia and Europe.

Asean members such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore are expected to discuss on migration, health, environment and education in order to court pragmatic solutions to the pressing issues.

The participants, who are students and young professionals from various fields such as diplomacy, law, engineering and journalism, will also engage in political debate and negotiation on Asia-Europe future collaborations such as the creation of a unified employment bloc and labour exchanges.

As a result of the conference, they will develop a chair’s statement of the 7th Model Asem, which will be presented at the Asem11m meeting in Mongolia from July 10 to 15.

All 51 heads of states, the president of the European Commission, the president of the European Council, and the secretary-general of the Asean Secretariat are expected to attend,

The summit is held biennially.

Italy hosted the last one in 2014 which was attended by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Malaysia, which is one of the 21 Asian countries in Asem and a member since 1996, has one youth representative to the 7th Model Asem.