European leaders gathered in impoverished Laos Monday on a mission to reassure Asia they are finally getting a grip on the eurozone debt crisis during a major summit in the tiny landlocked nation. Top European officials including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti were spearheading efforts to boost much-needed trade with Asia's fast-growing economies.
Hollande said the main aim of his first trip to Asia since taking office in May was to bring the message that "Europe is still an economic power". He criticised the inflexibility of the Chinese yuan and certain other Asian currencies, saying: "We have to be competitive but that requires fair exchange rates." Western nations frequently criticise Beijing's tight grip on the yuan, arguing that it gives the Asian giant an unfair trade advantage. For years Western outrage over Myanmar's human rights abuses - including the long-time detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners - was a major cause of friction between the two regions.
Unlike other participating nations, Myanmar was only allowed to send its foreign minister to previous Asia-Europe summits. But after reforms including the release of political detainees and Suu Kyi's election to parliament, the West has begun easing sanctions to reward President Thein Sein, who is now on the summit guest list. Optimism over the sweeping changes, however, has been dampened by deadly clashes between Buddhists and stateless Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine. British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Myanmar to address "the unresolved problems of the status of the Rohingya people".
"That's an issue of major concern for us. I'll certainly raise that with the Burma leaders here when I have the opportunity to do so," he told reporters in the Laos capital Vientiane. Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced since June by the unrest.
The violence is also "an issue of concern" for Southeast Asia, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told AFP. "But the fact that we can meet here in the heart of Southeast Asia almost without having Myanmar as an issue centre-stage as it has been in the past is a reflection of how far Myanmar has travelled in terms of its democratic transition," he added.
Europe places on Asia's vibrant economies, and its desire to counter increased US engagement in the region. "With the EU in the middle of a lost decade and facing protracted recession and fiscal austerity, European political and business leaders are turning to Asia's fast-growing economies for economic salvation," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at consultancy firm IHS Global Insight. Europe's leaders may also lobby Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to deploy some of Beijing's trove of about $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves - the largest in the world - to invest in EU bailout funds.
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