7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM): 7th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit was held at Beijing from 24th October to 25th October, 08, to initiate discussions to find a coordinated global response to stem the financial turmoil and spectre of recession sweeping the world. Mr. Manmohan Singh who attended the meeting, hoped that the meeting will com out with a solution to the many global problems triggered by the US credit crunch. He added the meeting of minds between Europe and Asia will produce a solution to many global problems including the international financial crisis.

ASEM was informally launched in 1996 at the first summit in Bangkok and the present membership rose to 45. ASEM currently has 45 partners including Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, Vietnam, the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Commission. ASEM will formally admit six new members in 2008: Bulgaria, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Romania and the ASEAN Secretariat.

Previous meeting were held at Bangkok in Thailand in 1996, at London in United Kingdom in 1998, at Seoul in South Korea in 2000, at Copenhagen in Denmark in 2002, at Hanoi in Vietnam in 2004 and at Helsinki in Finland in 2006. India, Mongolia and Pakistan were invited to participate in the next meeting.

In February 1997, ASEM member countries established Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), which is based in Singapore and mandated to promote better mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe through greater intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges. The Foundation is funded by contributions from the member governments, but the cost of many of its projects are shared by other institutions as well as private corporations of ASEM countries. One way ASEF carries out its mandate is by creating its own projects. Some of these initiatives include Asia-Europe Lecture, Asia-Europe Young Artists' Painting Competition and Exhibition, Informal Human Rights Seminar, Asia-Europe Youth Co-operation Network, and ASEF Editors' Roundtable.