Published on
Minister Flanagan Addresses Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charles Flanagan T.D., is attending today’s Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) 12th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Luxembourg. The theme for this year’s Meeting is "Working Together for a Sustainable and Secure Future".
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Minister Flanagan said:
“The ASEM Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is an important event, which gives me a valuable opportunity to engage with a wide variety of my counterparts from across Asia and Europe on areas and issues of mutual concern and benefit.”
Minster Flanagan will also hold bilateral meetings to strengthen Ireland’s relations with India (Minister of State at the Ministry of External Affairs, Gen. VK Singh), Indonesia (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Retno Marsudi), Singapore (Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence & Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman), and Vietnam (Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bùi Thanh Sơn).
Minister Flanagan will be the lead European speaker in the first plenary session on “Climate Change, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management”.
He stated:
“As the lead European Speaker in the first plenary session, I will speak about the global challenges of sustainable development and climate change, and how we can move forward on these issues.
Ireland, together with Kenya, co-chaired the talks which led to agreement among all 193 Member States of the United Nations on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, and I am pleased to engage with other ASEM members on the SDGs and discuss how we can work together to achieve these goals. I will discuss with ASEM colleagues how best to address the challenges posed by climate change in all of our interests and in the interests of future generations.
Climate change is a key challenge of this century and failure to address it effectively will result in irreversible global impacts affecting us all. Ireland recognizes that it is the poor and most vulnerable communities that are most negatively affected by climate change. As part of the EU, Ireland is committed to an ambitious, legally binding agreement that is applicable to all parties and sets us on a longer term pathway to a low carbon, climate-resilient future."