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EAS: calling for a new East Asian political architecture

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In Brief

The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) will be held in Bali in November, marked by the participation of two new members, Russia and the US.

The EAS is a pan-Asian dialogue forum on broad strategic, political and economic issues with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia.

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It strives to strengthen global norms and universal values, with ASEAN as the summit’s driving force, working in tandem with its participants.

The EAS includes 16 leaders, namely all 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Combined, these 16 countries represent almost half of the world’s population, and account for almost 32 per cent of global GDP, according to IMF figures. The meeting was meant to be held annually since the first summit in 2005, but due to various factors it met twice in 2007 and not at all in 2008. But since 2009, the summit has been annual and always held in October.

Russia and the US are both key players in the region’s stability and development, so their participation in the EAS will make possible the establishment of a more organised and effective political architecture. With the inclusion of the two countries, the EAS is set to become more important as it deals with economic and non-economic cooperation. In the past, both the EAS and ASEAN+3 (APT, the forum that coordinates cooperation between ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea) covered the former.

Security issues, including hard security issues, will be dealt with by the EAS, thereby enhancing regional cooperation in East Asia. Although hard security issues had become more urgent, they were previously not included in the agenda of existing regional institutions. Now we can at last connect the dots between existing regional institutions to form the lines that define a hierarchical and logical order.

At the very top of this order is the EAS, deliberating and deciding on strategic issues in economic, political and security fields. The execution part should be left to other existing regional institutions as follows: functional issues, including economic issues, by the APT; non-traditional issues by the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which has experience in handling national disasters and peacekeeping cooperation; traditional security issues by the newly established ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus, which should occur annually in the near future.

Lest readers get lost in the acronym jungle, the ARF, established in 1994, comprises 27 countries, namely ASEAN members and the 10 ASEAN Dialogue Partners (Australia, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US), one ASEAN observer (Papua New Guinea) and Bangladesh, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste. It is the principal forum for security dialogue in Asia, complementing the various bilateral alliances and dialogues.

The ADMM-Plus comprises ASEAN members and eight ASEAN Dialogue Partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US. The ADMM-Plus is the first official defence forum involving defence ministers from ASEAN and other key countries. It is imperative for the EAS and APEC to take on major economic issues as their contribution to global policies and institutional reform. To that end, a competent team of thinkers and experts should be formed on a permanent basis. It is also noteworthy that East Asia and APEC are represented by, respectively, seven and nine members of the G20.

The EAS should become a caucus and the driving force behind APEC, which India is set to join in the near future (APEC is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economics that seeks to promote free trade and economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific region). APEC is better prepared to represent the region in the G20, as a larger entity often has a larger influence. The G20 should function as a global ‘steering committee’ that provides political energy and direction and assesses progress on implementation in such circumstances.

It is important to have better coordination and a clear division of labour between the G20, APEC and the EAS. It should be recognised that APEC, which is an older and bigger group, can in the short term take the lead in dealing with global issues — but it needs the dynamism of the EAS to drive it forward.

Jusuf Wanadi is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta.

This article was originally published in Forbes Indonesia, May 2011.

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