The Hindu : International / India & World : India to be invited to East Asia Summit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

International

International - India & World

India to be invited to East Asia Summit

By P.S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, APRIL 12. India will be invited to the first-ever East Asia Summit (EAS) to be organised by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur towards the end of this year.

As the EAS will initiate the process of establishing an "East Asian Community" as a "long-term objective," India can, by participating in the summit, become a founding-member of the "economic community" that the ASEAN has proposed for this vast region, diplomatic observers said.

The "inclusion" of India in the planned EAS, alongside China, Japan and South Korea, was decided by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers at their informal "retreat" at Cebu in the Philippines on Monday. A formal decision is expected during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in Vientiane in July.

The 10-member ASEAN should "remain in the driver's seat of the EAS process," the Ministers agreed. "The ASEAN alone will decide the future members of all subsequent EASs."

Breaking the news about India's admission, the Singapore Foreign Minister, George Yeo, said the criteria for participation in the summit by non-ASEAN states were "substantive relations with ASEAN, full dialogue-partner status [in relation to the Association] and accession to the [ASEAN's] Treaty of Amity and Cooperation."

"India obviously qualifies on all three counts, and it will be included in the first EAS," Mr. Yeo said.

The decision to begin the process of East Asian summitry was made by the ASEAN in association with China, Japan and South Korea at their collective summit in Vientiane last November.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International