The recent 7th Model ASEM in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, reached a new milestone for youth engagement in the ASEM process: 4 students participated in the Opening Ceremony of the 11th ASEM Summit (ASEM11) to address the Leaders of the 53 ASEM partners on ASEM’s future direction.
This student intervention will pave the way for a closer youth and political leadership exchange within ASEM, which is further underlined in the official Ulaanbaatar Declaration of ASEM11: The ASEM Leaders “appraised the role of stakeholders in the ASEM process and underscore[d] the need to increase their engagement in ASEM activities through incorporating the Asia-Europe youth forum […] as additional ASEM stakeholders’ fora”.
Following the procedures of the ASEM11, the participants of the 7th Model ASEM negotiated a Chair’s Statement through role play and debates in plenary sessions and specific thematic working groups.
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) also arranged direct interactions between the student delegates and their respective Heads of State and Government and/or Foreign Ministers with the support of several Ministries of Foreign Affairs. The government representatives were from Austria, Cambodia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand and Viet Nam. Check out who had the opportunity to meet her/his Leader here!
ASEF co-organised the 7th Model ASEM with the Mongolian Youth Federation (MYF) in collaboration with the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). UNICEF Mongolia, DiploFoundation and the ASEF University Alumni Network (ASEFUAN) supported the project.