Russia-ASEAN Relations: New Directions

9. Towards the East Asian Community

Towards the East Asian Community 101 9 Towards the East Asian Community Vyacheslav F. Urlyapov Early in the 1990s the then Malaysia’s Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad put forward an initiative called the East Asia Economic Group (EAEG). Introduced during former Chinese Premier Li Peng’s visit to Kuala Lumpur, in December 1990, the EAEG was Malaysia’s response to the emergence of trade blocs in Europe and the Americas, and was an attempt to create a regional economic entity devoid of any role for Western powers, in particular the United States. Highly critical of the evolution of trade blocs in the postCold War era, Mahathir rationalized that in the face of this development, an Asian bloc was required to ensure “even economic development” and “fair trade” for nations of East Asia. As Dr Mahathir observed in a recent interview, “a long time ago we had the East Asian grouping, this was something to balance the grouping of Europe and that of NAFTA. I thought that we needed something to counterbalance that”.1 The EAEG also represented Malaysia’s reaction to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, which, according to Dr Mahathir, was dominated by the United States and its allies. From the beginning, Mahathir’s idea was opposed by Washington as inconsistent with the development of the world economy. The United States urged Asian countries to embrace instead the APEC. Under U.S. pressure the EAEG was changed 09 RUS_ASEAN Relations Ch 9 10/10/07, 12:14 PM 101 102 Vyacheslav F. Urlyapov into the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC). Later in 1993, the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore endorsed the EAEC as a “caucus within APEC”. Nevertheless, the United States still interpreted the conception as an attempt to create a “caucus without Caucasians”.2 The initiative was badly wounded but not killed. After the Asian financial crisis, the idea of East Asian cooperation received another impulse. Summit meetings in 1997–99 between ASEAN and three Northeast Asian powers have since developed into the format of ASEAN+3 (APT), with future evolution into an ambitious regional community. In 1999 leaders of APT at their summit in Manila issued a Joint Statement on East Asian Cooperation that stressed the importance of promoting regional cooperation over a wide range of issues at various levels. In November 2001, the East Asia Vision Group (EAVG), formed at the Manila summit and which comprised intellectuals of the APT countries, submitted a report which envisioned an East Asian Community and suggested ideas to promote community-building. The EAVG identified four core functions for the community: (1) to collaborate to promote a stable and cooperative security environment based on mutual trust and respect; (2) to promote trade, investment and financial cooperation to foster common prosperity; (3) to be mindful of disparities in socio-economic development, educational attainment and technological advances in the region; and (4) to improve governance, strengthen basic rights and boost quality of life for all. A year later, the East Asia Study Group (EASG), consisting of senior officials of the APT nations, submitted to its leaders a final report with recommendations on seventeen short-term and nine medium- and long-term measures to achieve the goal of community-building. Those developments within the APT framework have provided a practical foundation and political momentum for future efforts. At the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos, held in November 2004 it was decided that the East Asian Summit (EAS) meeting was to be launched towards the end of 2005. Key among advocates of the new ground in Asian integration and community-building were Malaysia and the Philippines which called for ASEAN to embrace China, Japan, South Korea and India in a larger grouping. Such an economic bloc, according to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, could then “hold its own” in future negotiations with the United States, Europe or other emerging economic entities. Announcing the EAS, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that the decision was an ASEAN consensus, reached after Indonesia formally accepted the idea to transform the APT framework into the EAS, 09 RUS_ASEAN Relations Ch 9 10/10/07, 12:14 PM 102 Towards the East Asian Community 103 with possibly additional countries like India, Australia and New Zealand invited to joint the new grouping. The first EAS meeting was held on 14 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The EAS was established as a forum for dialogue...