Reported on Bernama’s website here.

Asean Plus 3 Is Vehicle For East Asian Community, Says Syed Hamid
July 28, 2004 17:15 PM
By Santha Oorjitham

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) — Asean has agreed to move towards an East Asian Community with Asean Plus 3 as the vehicle, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said Wednesday.

“That allows us the flexibility to look at Asean as the driving force and the Plus 3 countries (China, Japan and South Korea) as part of the total working group to realise our vision of an East Asian Community,” he told Bernama.

The minister said that the “greatest test” would be the inaugural East Asian Summit which Kuala Lumpur hopes to hold back-to-back with the Asean Plus 3 Summit next year when Malaysia takes over the Asean chair.

The Asean Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta in June agreed on the framework for the East Asian Summit, he said, and senior officials would now work on the “modalities” and questions on both the Summit and the East Asian Community. They will meet on Aug 28.

Malaysia is also involved in the “concrete measures…to achieve the vision of East Asia” suggested by the East Asia Study Group (EASG) of government officials at the Asean Plus 3 Summit in Cambodia in November 2002.

“Asean is looking towards Malaysia to spearhead this,” a senior Asean diplomat told Bernama. “Asean should be in the driver’s seat because the three Northern countries could easily dominate.”

“We do not want Asean Plus 3 to disappear,” another Asean diplomat told Bernama. “We still want Asean Plus 3 as the main forum.”

In the past, Syed Hamid noted, “there was a lot of controversy when we talked about East Asia.”

But now, he said, “people see the usefulness of regional and sub-regional groupings.”

They have a significant role to play in the multilateral process, the minister said, complementing efforts to cooperate and increase trade and investment.

“We are not exclusive,” he stressed, pointing out that Asean had cooperated within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Forum and the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem). Asean will hold a commemorative summit with Australia and New Zealand during the 10th Asean Summit in Laos at the end of this year as well as an Asean-Russia Summit during the 11th Asean Summit here next year.

But at the same time, regional groupings can contribute by articulating a common stand to larger groupings such as the World Trade Organisation.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis taught Asean a lesson about the need for economic cooperation and integration, Syed Hamid said.

“Each individual country is vulnerable to external economic threats which can upset our economic growth and performance. The best way of overcoming these is by working together,” he said.

“Since the regional crisis of 1997, Asean has looked for regional institutions to help,” the senior Asean diplomat said. “Apec did not come up to expectations. This came up and it’s working.”

Some of the “concrete measures” proposed by the EASG, including economic and financial cooperation as well as political, security, environmental, energy, cultural, educational, social and institutional measures, are not proceeding as they should while some are moving slowly, the minister said.

Of the 17 short-term “high priority” measures, only three have been set up.

One successful measure was the East Asia Forum, which was held in South Korea last December. Malaysia will host the second Forum in December this year.

Another measure, a Network of East Asian Think-Tanks, was set up by China and met for the first time in Beijing last September. Their next meeting will be in Thailand next month.

A third measure, an East Asia Business Council, was set up by Malaysia with the International Trade and Industry Ministry acting as the lead agency. The first two meetings were held here in April and earlier this month.

“If we start with economic cooperation, the rest will follow,” reckoned the senior Asean diplomat. “The motion (towards an East Asian Community) has been set and there is no turning back.”
– BERNAMA

  

Posted on July 29th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Regionalisation