The 41st Policy Plenary Meeting (The 1stCEAC-ISAC Joint Study Meeting) on“The East Asian Community-Building Entering
its Second Stage”
July 22, 2010
Taking advantage of the occasion of the 41st Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council
on East Asian Community (CEAC), which was held on July 22nd at the conference room of
the Japan Forum on International Relations, the 1st CEAC‐ISAC Joint Study Meeting
cosponsored by CEAC and the International Academic Society for Asian Community(ISAC) was held. The topic of the Joint Study Meeting was ʺThe East AsianCommunity‐Building Entering its Second Stage.ʺ The Meeting was attended by 17members of CEAC and 12 members of ISAC. Prof. SHINDO Eiichi, President of ISAC madea keynote report, which was followed by an active exchange of views among members ofboth CEAC and ISAC. The gist of Prof. Shindoʹs keynote report is as follows.
ASEAN has ever led the process of regional integration in East Asia taking its
position in the driverʹs seat. For the past decade, however, the leading roles of the regional
integration have been shifting gradually from ʺASEAN+3ʺ to ʺ3+ASEANʺ, and also from
ʺASEAN‐led modelʺ to ʺJapan‐China‐ROK cooperated modelʺ through the movements
such as those of deepening of the Chiang Mai Initiative and of regularizing the meeting ofJapan‐China‐ROK Summits. Hence, it could be said that the East Asian community
building processes have entered the second stage.
The movements of regional integration in East Asia have been promoted by theemergence of common threats or risks as well as common interests which were brought
about by the Information Technology Revolution in globalization. As for the commonthreats, the expansion of non‐traditional security risks could be pointed out such as
financial risk, environmental pollution, poverty and food crisis. Regarding the commoninterests, on the other hand, the growing economic interdependencies in the region havemade East Asian countries require the enlargement and deepening of the free trademechanism.
The reason why the East Asia community building processes have entered thesecond stage could be pointed out by the facts that each government of Japan, China andROK has placed their diplomatic priorities on furthering the East Asian integration
processes, and also that ASEAN moved towards the more active reinforcement of regional
integration for the ʺASEAN Communityʺ through their closer cooperation with theNortheast Asian trilateral parties. Furthermore, the movements towards regional
integration have progressed at those several levels such as the adoption of The Second Joint
Statement on Regional Cooperation in East Asia at the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit in2007, the foundation of APT Cooperation Fund in 2008. Hence it could be properly said
that the East Asian community building processes have been stepping into its second stage.
The last ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Hanoi decided that they will invite
the United States and Russia to participate as regular members of East Asia Summit (EAS).
Any regional integration processes would tend to face with the difficulties soon or later ifthey lose their regional identity and interests based on their common risks. So far theregional integration process in East Asia has developed mainly in the socio‐economic, tradeand investment fields. However, the further regional integration could be accomplishedonly through a ʺJanus‐faced double truck approachʺ, namely from the views not only ofsocio‐economic but also of military‐security sides. All in all, the hegemonic military orderwith heavily financial capitalism would have to be replaced with the regional order basedon sustainable development and production system for further integration in East Asia.