HELSINKI: The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is to invite India, Mongolia and Pakistan to join future gatherings of the forum dedicated to dialogue between Asia and Europe, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen announced at the opening ceremony of the two-day ASEM summit yesterday.

"I am very pleased to announce that during this summit we will make an important decision concerning enlargement of our partnership," Vanhanen said.

"We intend to invite India, Mongolia, Pakistan and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretariat on the Asian side, and Bulgaria and Romania as acceding EU Member States on the European side, to participate in the ASEM process."

"This enlargement will not only widen, but also significantly deepen Asia-Europe relations," he added.

The addition of the three Asian countries will lessen the imbalance in the forum, where the European Union (EU)'s 25 members outweigh the 13 Asian countries 10 ASEAN nations plus China, Japan and South Korea currently in the club.

The EU will grow to 27 member states next year if Bulgaria and Romania join the bloc as scheduled.

Trade and security issues top the agenda of the meeting, which brings leaders and top officials from 38 Asian and European nations to the capital of Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

(China Daily 09/11/2006 page2)