External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will go to Laos to participate in the 9th summit of the 48-member Asia-Europe Meeting, ASEM to be held on 5-6 of this month. It will be his first overseas visit after taking over charge of External Affairs Ministry. The official spokesperson in the Ministry today said that Mr Khurshid will speak on global issues and on future direction of ASEM at the two-day summit of the trans- continental grouping.

The Minister will also be having bilateral meetings with other Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the summit.

AIR correspondent adds that ASEM is home to 60 percent of the world's population, 50 percent of global GDP and 60 percent of global trade. ASEM, an inter-regional forum, consists of, among others, the European Commission, the 27 members of the European Union (EU), the thirteen members of the ASEAN plus 3 (Japan, South Korea and China) regional grouping, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Australia, Russia and New Zealand.