The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), established in 1996, to foster interregional relations between Asia and Europe, has attracted little attention in either of the two regions, so much so that the longevity of this institution poses a puzzle. On the one hand, the region-to-region relations between Asia and Europe in ASEM are suggestive of a new pattern of interactions in international relations, which may lead to different outcomes in global affairs as compared to traditional state-to-state relations. On the other hand, that ASEM exists at all is not generally known, and ASEM Summits have attracted little media coverage. ASEM has been criticized from inside and outside as being merely a “talk shop” that considers a variety of broad topics, but has no political will to bring the talk to reality, and lacks the capacity to implement its intentions. ASEM has, however, survived until today, and one of the most important reasons for this survival is the persistent attendance of Southeast Asian leaders and participants in the ASEM forums.

For Southeast Asian countries, the region-to-region relations between Asian and European countries in ASEM have some characteristics that are unusual in terms of their engagements in regional and global affairs. ASEM does not include the United States and it was initially expected to balance the United States-European Union (EU)-Asia triangle. In addition, ASEM is the first forum in which Southeast Asian countries have been able to meet and coordinate collectively with countries in Northeast Asia, namely Japan, China and South Korea vis-à-vis another partner, in this case Europe; it may therefore demonstrate the EU's influence in the formation process of (East) Asian regionalism. Moreover, the ASEM biannual Summit has a high profile as this is the only forum attended exclusively by heads of states and governments of Asian and EU countries. The climate for inter-regional discourse has also been changing.