A biennial meeting of Asian and European foreign ministers ended Tuesday with attendees discussing regional and international issues including the situation in the Korean Peninsula and calling for stronger partnership to promote peace and sustainable development in the two continents.

The chair's statement released after the two-day meeting in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw did not directly touch on the humanitarian crisis in the host country's Rakhine State that has seen over half a million Muslim Rohingya flee to the safety of Bangladesh.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who doubles as foreign minister, successfully skirted criticism by explaining her government's response to the crisis in an informal meeting Monday with representatives of major countries.

Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Kazuyuki Nakane, who attended the gathering, told Japanese media that he expressed the Japanese government's serious concerns over the situation in Rakhine and stressed the importance of the Myanmar government continuing to explain its activities there to the international community.

According to diplomatic sources, only Myanmar, Bangladesh and some European countries raised the issue at the meeting.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, representing the European Union, said that in order to facilitate "the safe and dignified return to the people to the place of origin, it is critically important that there is first a cessation of violence and also non-discriminatory rule of law is established in Rakhine."

He said the ministers thanked Suu Kyi for the briefing on the situation in Rakhine State, which provided them an opportunity for a constructive and frank exchange on the situation there.

"We discussed the need to end all violence and to grant full access to all humanitarian actors and aid workers. We were encouraged by the work that the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh are undertaking to swiftly conclude the bilateral agreement aimed at ensuring the voluntary safe and dignified return to the place of origin of all those who have fled Myanmar," he said.

Suu Kyi said at the same press briefing that in the informal meeting the day before, she explained the present situation in Rakhine State and what her government is doing to resolve the problems "as quickly as possible."

"All those who are present at the meeting are very eager to help us in our efforts to bring about peace and stability in Rakhine as quickly as possible," she said.

"Nothing can be done overnight but we believe that we will be able to make steady progress particularly as in Myanmar, all different states and regions has joined together to address all the difficult issues in Rakhine," she added.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that during the two-day meeting the ministers shared their "fresh ideas" on partnership for peace and sustainable development, while discussing a number of regional and international issues in "a very pragmatic and candid manner."

The topics discussed include preventing and combating violent extremism, migration, disarmament, nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass distraction, connectivity, and drug trafficking.

Paet said the North Korean nuclear issue occupied a "big part" of the meeting and that recent developments there are "a matter of great concern."

He said the European Commission has repeatedly called on Pyongyang to cease its violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions and has also imposed the toughest sanctions it has ever applied on a third country.

"Our objective is to bring the DPRK back to respective international laws and norms and to refrain from any action that could further increase international tension and rather to engage in credible dialogue with international community aimed at pursuing a complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the country's official name.

Established in 1996, ASEM is a platform for dialogue and cooperation on global issues such as climate change, trade and investment, as well as security challenges related to counter-terrorism, migration, maritime security, computerization and modern-day communication technology.

ASEM brings together 51 countries from across Europe and Asia -- 30 from Europe and 21 from Asia -- which collectively account for 60 percent of the global population as well as the same percentages of the global economy and international trade.

Meetings of the leaders of those 51 countries and of their foreign ministers are held every two years, with the meetings held in alternate years.

The Myanmar government has repeatedly said the crisis in northern Rakhine was deliberately provoked by "extremist terrorists" to put international pressure on the government, using the historically complex and politically sensitive issue.

The government has long claimed that the Rohingya, a Muslim community in the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or the state of West Bengal in eastern India, and not legitimate citizens of Myanmar even though many have lived there for generations.

Myanmar's authorities have said the military operations in Rakhine are simply aimed at restoring stability and eliminating the threat of "terrorism," after about two dozen government security posts there were attacked on Aug. 25 by Muslim militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.