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Myanmar (1) -- News -- 2010
EU seeking deal on election mission to Myanmar
26.05.2010
The European Union is seeking a deal with Myanmar to send a mission to Yangon to discuss the country's upcoming elections, a Spanish official said Wednesday
during an EU-ASEAN conference in Madrid.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton hopes to "finalise" agreement on an "exploratory" EU mission during talks in the Spanish capital with Myanmar
Foreign Minister U Nyan Win, said the official, Jose Eugenio Salarich, in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs at the Spanish foreign ministry.
Myanmar (1) -- Analyses -- 2010
More about the talks
26.05.2010
The talks between Ashton and U Nyan Win are scheduled on the sidelines of a one-day ministerial conference between foreign ministers and senior officials from the
27 EU members and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The global economic crisis, security issues and climate change are also on the agenda.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, opened the conference with a call for greater cooperation to
confront the crisis.
"Our friends in ASEAN are emerging (from the crisis) with less problems than Europe is experiencing, thanks to its dynamism and the general situation in
Asia and the Pacific," he told the delegates.
He said EU hopes ASEAN can take "an open and comprehensive attitude to jointly confront the temptations of protectionism, open markets, create a favourable
environment for investments and cooperate in efforts the economic and institutional framework at a global financial level."
The ministers are also expected to discuss relations with China, given the role that the Asian giant plays in trade with both the EU and ASEAN.
An ASEAN-China free trade pact came into effect earlier this year, establishing the world's biggest free-trade zone in terms of population, covering nearly two
billion consumers.
The European Union is the world's largest market for Chinese exports, but the bloc has voiced concerns about growing protectionism and unequal treatment
for European firms in China.
Salarich said the ministers will also discuss the tensions between North and South Korea.
But he said the recent turmoil in Thailand is not on the agenda as it is an "internal situation" in a member country, although the country's representative at
the talks, Jitriya Pinthong, deputy permanent secretary of the foreign ministry, may make a statement about it.
ASEAN groups includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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