VIENTIANE, Laos - Dozens of European and Asian leaders will gather in
impoverished Laos on Monday for a major summit set to be dominated by
the eurozone debt crisis and growing territorial tensions in the region.
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European officials including French President Francois Hollande and
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti are due to spearhead efforts to
reassure Asia that the long-running eurozone crisis is finally coming
under control.
The diplomatic offensive is seen as a sign of the growing importance that debt-laden Europe places on Asia's fast-growing economies, and its desire to counter increased US engagement in the region.
The diplomatic offensive is seen as a sign of the growing importance that debt-laden Europe places on Asia's fast-growing economies, and its desire to counter increased US engagement in the region.
European Union president Herman Van Rompuy (above photo) is also among those
converging on Laos, a landlocked country of just six million people on
the verge of joining the World Trade Organization as it opens up its
fast-growing economy.
- But German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who warned over the weekend that it would take more than five years to overcome the euro debt crisis -- will not attend, sending her foreign minister instead.
- The Asia-Europe Meeting, held every two years, provides an opportunity to boost links between two regions that together account for about half of the global GDP.
- Europe's leaders may also lobby Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to deploy some of Beijing's trove of about $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves; the largest in the world to invest in EU bailout funds.
Asian
leaders for their part are expected to press Europe to take swift
action to calm a crisis that has battered the world economy and set back
efforts to reduce global poverty.
Source: Agency
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