From 9 – 14 December 2022, ASEF’s Education Department joined the Young Indo-Pacific Forum 2022 as a partner to the co-organisers: the Student Think Tank for Europe-Asia Relations (STEAR), Polis 180 & European Guanxi.
Through the topic of ‘Hybrid Threats’ – Youth Perspectives and Narratives, YIPF welcomed global, 40 young participants to discover EU-Indo-Pacific insights on five panels: climate change, human rights and migration, trade, technology, and security as well as additional programme elements including the EU-ASEAN Youth Summit.
Other Partners & Venue hosts included Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Multinational Development Dialogue Brussels team, the European Parliament, and Press Club Brussels.
Freya Chow-Paul, Youth Project Coordinator in the Education Department, joined a Roundtable discussion on How to Set an Agenda and Implement Youth Ideas with co-panellists, Anban Raj, Anirban Das, Sandra Wohlauf, Sufia Khalid & Aleksandrs Mironovs, with moderation by Jonas Nitschke
Freya Chow-Paul & Quentin Fayet also delivered a session on Youth in Multilateralism across Asia & Europe where they were joined by panellists: Ioannis Giogarakis-Argyropoulos (Head of Division for Regional Affairs, EEAS; EU Governor for ASEF), Joses Wong (Secretary-General, ASEAN-EU Chamber of Commerce), and Juan Rayon (President of the Erasmus Student Network). They also shared the soft-launch of the new Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on Asia-Europe Connectivity.
The Young Indo-Pacific Forum (YIPF) contributed to the organising of the EU-ASEAN Youth Summit on 13 December which was an official side event of the EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit on 14 December, which was the historic occasion, at 45 years of diplomatic relations, the first of such an occasion where Heads of States from the 2 regions came together in this format.
We also supported the drafting and the production of a video message from youth representatives from the Young Indo-Pacific Forum (YIPF), the Youth Sounding Board, and the EU-ASEAN Young Leaders Forum, that was presented to the EU-ASEAN Heads of States during the Opening Ceremony of the Summit. You can watch the full message here: https://video.consilium.europa.eu/event/en/26241
ASEF’s contribution is made possible with the financial support of the European Union