"GFJ Commentary" introduces news analyses andopinions in Japan on the relations of Japan with therest of the world, but they do not represent the viewsof GFJ as an institution.

February 21, 2007

State of East Asian Community Concept andASEAN Integration
By ITO Kenichi[Concept of an East Asian Community]
The concept of an East Asian Community has now emerged as a shared future goal in EastAsia.

It is a common topic of discussions in various occasions where government officials,

businessmen, academia, and think-tanks meet.

The concept has been floated since the first

ASEAN + 3 Summit meeting was convened in 1997 in Kuala Lumpur.

But what had ameaning then was the fact itself that they could finally meet because a gathering of the same
members proposed by Prime Minister Mahatir of Malaysia in 1990 in the name of the East Asia
Economic Caucus(EAEC) could not have been materialized.

To hear an explicit voice for an

East Asian Community we had to wait until 1999 when the third ASEAN + 3 Summit meeting
held in Manila adopted the Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation, which stressed theimportance to promote regional cooperation in wide-ranging issues at various levels.
[Network of East Asian Think-Tanks(NEAT)]
This voice was heard in a stronger and clearer tone when in 2001 a report was submitted to
the ASEAN + 3 leaders by the East Asia Vision Group(EAVG), which envisioned an East Asian
Community and suggested ideas toward Community building.

The voice was heard in an evenmore concrete and practical terms when in 2002 the East Asia Study Group(EASG) submitted to
the ASEAN + 3 Summit meeting a final report which recommended the 17 short-term measuresand the 9 middle- and long-term measures to achieve a future goal of Community building.
The concept of an East Asian Community has since been refined and enriched throughdiscussions in various ASEAN + 3 meetings, including the Network of East AsianThink-Tanks(NEAT) and other international forums, securing a wider participation of academia,
think-tanks, government officials, and businessmen.
[East Asia Summit]
It was in 2006 in Kuala Lumpur that along with the eighth ASEAN + 3 Summit meeting,which declared to “continue to be the main vehicle in achieving the goal” of realizing an EastAsian Community, the first East Asia Summit, where Australia, India and New Zealand werealso invited in addition to the ASEAN + 3 countries, met and declared that it “could play asignificant role in community building in the region.”

It is not completely clear which Summit

will lead the move toward building of a community in the region.
here.

However, one thing is clear

While the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the eighth ASEAN + 3 Summit says, its“process will continue to be the main vehicle in achieving that goal, with ASEAN as the driving
force,” the same Declaration on the first East Asia Summit also says, “we strive to strengthen
global norms and universally recognized values with ASEAN as the driving force.”[With ASEAN as the Driving Force]
I would like to call your attention to the fact that the Declarations of both the ASEAN + 3
and the East Asia Summits concurred in authorizing ASEAN as the driving force of community
building in the region.

It must be admitted that ASEAN has always played a leading role inregional cooperation in East Asia. This is not only a very unique but also a very importantelement of regionalism in East Asia as compared with those in Western Europe and NorthAmerica.

ASEAN has hosted a number of key forums of regional cooperation, including

ASEAN + 1s, ASEAN + 3, PMC, and ARF, etc.
community building in East Asia.

Those forums have nurtured the basis ofIn sharp contrast with EU, where the driving force was aFranco-German axis, the driving force was ASEAN in East Asia.
[ASEAN Integration]
It is also noteworthy that ASEAN has at the same time taken major initiatives in promoting
integration among themselves, such as the initiative to create the “ASEAN Free Trade Area” by
2010, and the proposal to establish the “ASEAN Security Community,” the “ASEAN EconomicCommunity” and the “ASEAN Socio-cultural Community” under the “Declaration of ASEAN
Concord ” issued in Bali in 2003.

These initiatives taken by ASEAN can play the role of not

only a catalyst but a model for the community building in the region as a whole.

I pay a special

attention to this fact because this fact gives us a hope that a community building may well bepossible in East Asia in spite of another fact that this region is so diverse in culture, religion,political system, economic level, etc. in sharp contrast with EU where they share many things incommon among themselves.
[ASEAN, an Epitome of East Asia]
If we are obsessed with the idea that EU is the only model of regional integration and that
we are so handicapped that it is unrealistic to think of building a community in East Asia, wewill make a mistake.

An Asian way of building a community must be not so much a process oflearning how to imitate what has happened in Europe as a process of creating what has not
happened anywhere before.

The final form and substance of a community may and should

differ between EU and an East Asian Community.

As a matter of fact, Europe and East Asia

are following a different path to a regional integration; the former through a government-driven
institutional approach and the latter through a market-oriented functional approach.
difference in approach is very natural and nothing deplorable.
ASEAN is a model of a regional integration in East Asia.

ThisIn my opinion, not Europe but

ASEAN itself is an epitome of EastAsia, full of diversity among its member nations, yet it has so successfully achieved a high level

of integration already.
[ASEAN Way and Peer Pressure]
However, of course, ASEAN is not perfect yet as a model of a regional integration.
are many things which we wish to see improved.

There

One of the most important points in question,

I am sure many of you will concur, is the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs of eachother.

I admit that this has been one of the most sacred principles of international community

since the community was formulated in 1648 in Westphalia.

I also admit that this principle isat the core of what is called an “ASEAN Way.”

It is also true that Northeast Asian countries

are even more rigorous in pursing this principle.

Even in EU they stick to this principle when

an issue in question touches their sensitivity.

Therefore, of course, I am not asking ASEAN toabandon this principle of non-intervention.

However, I wonder if ASEAN could further

develop and strengthen their practice of peer pressure as a model of East Asian integration.
[Catalyst and Model for Community Building ]On the occasion of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July thisyear, a series of Foreign Ministers meetings were held as well for East Asia Summit, ASEAN
Plus Three, PMC and ARF.

This indicates how intricately ASEAN facilitates the process of acommunity building in East Asia.

Without it, the process could not have moved a step forward.

During those Foreign Ministers meetings, not only such current issues as the North Korean
missile issue, the Lebanese crisis and the Myanmar’s democratization, but the issue of a second
Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation on the tenth anniversary of the ASEAN Plus Three
process in 2007 was also discussed.

Japan welcomes and highly appreciates those efforts andachievements of ASEAN in the process of a community building both among ASEAN nations
and in East Asia as a whole.

These initiatives taken by ASEAN indicate that ASEAN plays therole of both a catalyst and a model for the community building in the region as a whole.