Opinion - News Analysis   

A real forum for the future?

Amit Baruah

THERE WAS no radical departure from the script at the East Asia Summit in the Malaysian capital on Wednesday. A minimal, first step was taken in the direction of what might turn out to be the beginnings of a pan-Asian forum.

All the economic powerhouses in East, Southeast, and South Asia, along with Australia and New Zealand, were present. Sixteen heads of government issued their Kuala Lumpur declaration, setting up the East Asia Summit as a forum for dialogue on strategic, political, and economic issues of common interest.

Though the differences between China and South Korea, on the one hand, and Japan, on the other, prevented a meeting among the leaders of the three nations, this did not come in the way of the EAS issuing a declaration.

A "sense of the house" statement by Malaysia, the EAS Chair, pointed the way forward: "We recognised the increasing inter-linkages and growing inter-dependence among our countries and agreed to deepen integration and cooperation in order to promote the creation of a harmonious and prosperous community of nations."

General topics for debate

There is little doubt that very general issues have been identified for discussion at the annual summits of the new forum. That is to be expected given that perceptions and interests vary among participating nations and no one is quite clear about the direction EAS will take.

Given the fact that "substance" is some distance away, the focus is on who will "lead" the forum. The 10-strong Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), many of whose members were previously known as "Asian tigers," is keen on ensuring that it remains at the centre of progress.

While China's rise has been the focus of ASEAN countries for some time, of late, the grouping has also begun to see India as an economic opportunity. At the same time, ASEAN's wants to make sure it is economically ahead in an Asia where China, Japan, and South Korea, and an emerging India, are major players.

The questions before the inaugural EAS then were whether it would be ASEAN, "ASEAN plus three," which includes China, Japan and South Korea, or all the participants to the EAS, that would take forward the Summit process. ASEAN, while wanting to retain control of EAS, does not want to get embroiled in the power politics among the big Asian powers as well as among countries such as Australia and New Zealand, which bring a blunt style of diplomacy to Southeast Asia's more stolid approach.

In the end, the EAS declaration made no reference to any primary role for the "ASEAN plus three" in running the new forum. "The East Asia Summit will be hosted and chaired by an ASEAN member country that assumes ASEAN Chairmanship and held back-to-back with the annual ASEAN summit ... " Also, the modalities for the EAS would be reviewed by ASEAN and all other participating nations, it stated.

However, Malaysia pointed out that an East Asian Community was a "long term goal" that would contribute to the maintenance of peace, security, prosperity progress "in the region and beyond."

"We agreed that the East Asia Summit with ASEAN as the driving force is an integral part of the overall evolving regional architecture. We also agreed that the East Asian region had already advanced in its efforts to realise an East Asian community through the ASEAN+3 process.

"In this context, we believed that the East Asia Summit together with the ASEAN+3 and the ASEAN+1 processes could play a significant role in community building in the region," the Chairman's statement added.

Malaysia, as the ASEAN representative, was speaking not just of the role of ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea, but of India as well since New Delhi is very much part of the "ASEAN+1" (summit) processes.

While ASEAN, perhaps, is seeking to balance key powers in the region as it occupies the driver's seat in the EAS, the fact is that people in the region are not looking at acronyms and mechanisms, but whether or not nations and leaders are serious about connectivity, regional integration as well as free and equitable trade. And, doing away with barriers, must, in the final analysis, help the millions of people still without jobs and education, health-care, and clean drinking water. Wealth creation should be a mere adjunct of the overriding objective of job creation.

Malaysia made it clear that the EAS would be a process led by the leaders (as distinct from the "bottom up" ASEAN approach). People in this part of the world will be watching how far and how quickly it will become a meaningful forum; one that does not restrict itself to issuing declarations and statements.

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

Stories in this Section

Improved climate for Kyoto agenda
Release Suu Kyi, begin talks
Higher education: learning from the U.S.
A real forum for the future?
A further fillip to the peace process
Unfair to Ganguly
Gross discrimination
Image tarnished
Access to education
Conserve water
Heart-warming
"We have made a difference"

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu