The 48th Policy Plenary Meeting on“After the closing of ASEAN Plus Three and EastAsia Summit”
December 19, 2011
The 48th Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC)
was held on December 19 at the conference room of the Japan Forum on International
Relations, to discuss ʺAfter the closing of ASEAN Plus Three and East Asia Summit.ʺ Mr.
ISHIKANE Kimihiro, Deputy Director‐General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, made keynote report, which was followed by anactive exchange of views among Members of CEAC. Mr. ISHIKANE stated as follows:In pursuit of order formation in Asia aligned with its national interest, Japan for
more than a year has been arranging with nations concerned to establish the ʺEast AsiaSummitʺ (EAS) chiefly as a place to strengthen political and security ties and confirm
fundamental rules of the region. At the latest EAS, we have reached out in advance to theUnited States, Australia, Chairman Indonesia and other ASEAN countries as well as theEAS members, took up maritime security as a topic, and coordinated it into the ʺEASDeclarationʺ and ʺChairmanʹs Statement.ʺ There, emphasis is placed on international lawcompliance. When something of concern exists within the region, it is necessary to let theregion be ʺengagedʺ in line with international law, while ʺdeterrenceʺ also needs to be inplace. Especially from the engagement point, we may need to expand the existing ASEAN
Marine Forum and transform it into a framework that enables free exchange of views withparticipation of Japan, United States, China and Australia. In the meantime, Japan willcontinue to support ʺASEAN Centralityʺ of this region.
Amidst changing regional situations, how to maintain Japanʹs presence in ASEAN
has been one of our tasks. At the latest ʺJapan‐ASEAN Summit Meeting,ʺ theannouncement of joint declaration known as Bali Declaration was achieved. With
supporting connectivity as its core, task force was set up on both Japan and ASEAN side
last year, and after talks Japan decided to carry out 33 projects to support connectivity. Thisis expected to be a 2 trillion yen business to be undertaken as an All Japan project by publicand private sectors. There were also other decisions made from anti‐disaster perspective,
such as support to AHA Center and designing future ʺASEAN Disaster Prevention
Network.ʺ The nonproliferation and environmental issues also consist the cores ofcooperation.
At ʺASEAN Plus Threeʺ Summits, we have accumulated practical cooperation,
which have borne fruits such as ʺChiang Mai Initiativeʺ as an emergency measure against
currency crisis, or establishment of monitoring body ʺAMROʺ to watch for economic crisis
in advance. ʺAPTERRʺ to handle food crisis in the region was also established. Also inrespect to economic integration, workshops are to be launched to design the frameworks ofʺEAFTAʺ (ASEAN Plus Three) and ʺCEPEAʺ (ASEAN Plus Six). Through these workshops,
we need to speed up investigations on economic integration.
Since the Mekong‐Japan Summit held in 2009 at Tokyo, Japan has strengthened its
engagement in the Mekong region mainly comprised of less developed ASEAN members.
Japan will continue to support building this transparent, open and inclusive regional order.
In 2012, Another ʺMekong‐Japan Summitʺ is expected to be held. As for future tasks,
ASEAN Chairman after the coming year shall be in the order of Cambodia, Brunei andMyanmar, and Japan needs to deepen engagement with these countries as well. Myanmar
notably, needs to be engaged on various occasions to prevent its democratic move which
has just began to move forward from backsliding.