LUXEMBOURG CITY - European leaders attending the foreign ministers' meeting within the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) have on many occasions stressed the importance of cooperation between Europe and Asia in tackling shared global challenges.

The aim of the two-day meeting on Nov. 5-6 was to review the commitments made during the ASEM Summit in Milan in October 2014 and prepare for the 20th anniversary of ASEM, which will be celebrated at the next ASEM Summit in Mongolia in July 2016.

The items on the agenda for the first session on Thursday were climate change, the Sustainable Development Program for 2030 and the management and reduction of disaster risks; the second session focuses on connectivity and the future of ASEM.

The ministers discussed international and regional affairs Friday morning and the meeting was scheduled to conclude at noon Friday.

Grand Duke Henri, royal head of state of Luxembourg, highlighted in his opening speech on Thursday the fact that Asia and Europe were "key players in global geopolitics".

"ASEM has 53 partners; 11 of them are G20 members. Together, our two continents bring together about half of the world's GDP, about 60 percent of its population and almost 60 percent of its trade. These figures speak for themselves," he said.(Xinhua)