This Reuters report was published on 30 November 2004 and was extracted from here.

East Asian Community: an idea whose time has come?
30 Nov 2004 03:46
By Linda Sieg

TOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A decade after former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad proposed an East Asian Economic Caucus, only to see the notion quashed by the United States, experts say an integrated East Asian Community is an idea whose time has come.

Leaders of 13 southeast and northeast Asian states meeting in Laos showed their determination to step up regional integration this week by creating a new grouping and the first East Asian Summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur next year.

“When Mahathir made his proposal … the United States crushed the idea and Japan could not go against Washington,” said Toshihiko Kinoshita, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University who specialises in Asian economies.

“But things have changed completely.”

Mahathir, who stepped down as Malaysian premier last year, first floated his regional concept in 1991 as a counterweight to other blocs such as the European Union.

The proposal had a strong anti-U.S. flavour and Washington was unwilling to countenance the challenge to its influence.

The new East Asian Summit will build on leaders’ meetings held since 1999 by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea.

India, which also attends the ASEAN+3 gatherings and whose vibrant economy is of growing interest to East Asia, may also join eventually.

The decision to upgrade the summit coincides with a rise in political tensions in northeast Asia, where China and Japan are at odds on range of topics, a fact that some analysts say is a factor behind the renewed drive towards closer cooperation.

“The most important aspect … is the need for northeast Asia to get together and establish a peaceful environment where there is so much tension,” said Wang Gungwu, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore.

“The Korean peninsula, Taiwan, Japan-China tensions — these are all urgent matters,” Wang said. “By bringing in ASEAN, it has made it easier for the three countries (China, Japan and South Korea) to come together on a large number of issues which are not easy to talk about.”

MULTIPLE FACTORS

A desire to harness themselves to China, with its growing economic and political clout, is one factor behind the latest drive by other countries for an East Asian Community, athough some ASEAN members worry Beijing would dominate the group.

“I think it’s probably the most important factor,” said Peter Morgan, senior economist at HSBC Securities Japan.

“China is the 800 pound gorilla in the region.”

But analysts cite a number of other pressing reasons as well, including the need to counterbalance other regional blocs such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the recently enlarged European Union.

The World Trade Organisation’s slow progress on free trade due to deep divisions between rich and poor states, and the realisation that countries cannot cope alone with upheavals such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis have also altered the landscape since Mahathir first made his pitch.

For ASEAN, a sense of economic insecurity has made the notion of integration increasingly attractive, said Mohamed Ariff, executive director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.

“There is great concern that ASEAN is too small to have a global impact,” Ariff said.

“There is a mind-set change, a willingness to compromise even on sovereignty if necessary to have a strong regional grouping.”

ASEAN’s members are Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

SECURITY SENSITIVITY

Initial East Asian Summits are likely to focus on economic issues such as free trade pacts and steps to boost regional investment, since security matters may be too sensitive to discuss in such a diverse group, analysts said.

But hopes are growing that closer regional ties will also foster improved diplomatic relations between China and Japan, now bedevilled by squabbles over Japan’s wartime misdeeds, economic rivalry and mutual mistrust over defence policies.

“Political relations can’t improve quickly, but everyone agrees on the need to increase trade and investment, so the idea is spreading that tightening economic ties will foster political and cultural coexistence,” Waseda’s Kinoshita said.

If an East Asian Community can contribute to stability in the region, that may persuade the United States not to object this time, the East Asian Institute’s Wang said.

All the same, experts agree that true regional integration will take decades, not years. “Unlike Europe, Asia has a diversity of history, peoples, religions and economies,” Kinoshita said.

“This is not something that can be accomplished tomorrow.”

  

Posted on December 1st, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Regionalisation