Africa has increased dramatically in the last decade. Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), wide. (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.) The coastline is long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only – about a third of the surface of Africa
Asia–Europe Foundation the leaders of 25 Asian and European countries as well as the European Commission, met in Bangkok, Thailand, for the 1st Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit (ASEM1). At this inaugural meeting, they agreed on the establishment of the Asia–Europe Foundation (ASEF) on 15 February 1997 as a central institution of ASEM's social, cultural and educational pillar. One of the main tasks of ASEF is to become an interface between civil society groups and governments by facilitating interactions among people from diverse fields and transmitting the resulting outputs as recommendations to policy-makers. By nature, ASEF is different from other organisations, as it