"CEAC Commentary" introduces news analyses andopinions in Japan on topics related to regional
cooperation and integration in East Asia, but they do
not represent the views of CEAC as an institution.

December 26, 2012

"Mutual Trust" in East Asian RegionalCooperation on the Rocks
By ISHIGAKI Yasuji
The issue of "mutual trust" in promoting regional cooperation in East Asia wasseriously discussed on the occasion of the Annual Conference of the Network of East AsianThink‐tanks (NEAT), held in Beijing from August 26 to 28 of this year. The lively discussion wasconducted on that issue, upon the initiative of the host country, China, who admitted herself as
prime‐mover of NEAT, as one of the central agenda items for that Conference in the year
marking its tenth anniversary of the NEAT. Needless to say, on the importance of ʺmutualtrust,ʺ there was a perfect consensus reached at the Conference among the representatives ofNEAT member countries comprised of the ASEAN Plus Three.

As I had the opportunity of participating as a discussant from Japan in the above
session, I proposed as my personal ideas several important steps toward “mutual trust”
building in East Asia, including (1) increasing close dialogue/consultation mechanisms among
countries in the region, (2) multilateral networking of early‐warning systems and hotlines, (3)utmost transparency of state institutions including legal system, policies, military budgets andcapabilities, etc. to reduce mutual distrust, (4) removal of excessive nationalistic bent in eachcountryʹs educational program, (5) peaceful solution of all disputes through such establishedinstitutions as international courts and tribunals etc. and I emphasized that increased
people‐to‐people contact through frequent visits among countries in the region should beconsidered as a principal pillar as a major premise for confidence‐building. While my emphasison the interchanges of persons naturally elicited no objection and was presumably accepted byother participants as agreeable or probably even self‐evident, we have seen the subsequentdevelopments in the region moving to an entirely opposite direction.

Thus, in the wake of intensifying territorial disputes, it was most regretful that various
interchanges of persons among countries at both governmental and private‐sector levels weresuddenly suspended or postponed by the unilateral political actions of China. They included awide range of measures such as cancellation of events to mark the 40th anniversary ofnormalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and China, non‐attendance of high‐level
persons to the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Groupheld in Tokyo which were important multilateral conferences of non‐political nature,
non‐dispatch of film directors to the Tokyo International Film Festival, and cancellation ofvarious business‐related events. These caused concerns and were speculated among many
intellectuals about the true intention of Chinese authorities. With South Korea as well, there
exist some strains related to territorial and historical issues, fortunately the interchanges ofpersons have not so much affected as they have been between Japan and China.

The current situation between Japan and China is a matter for serious concern
as theinterchanges of people have been extremely hampered not only in thegovernment-to-government relations but also in the cultural fields and under theprograms involving local authorities. At the governmental level, there only remain very
limited mutual visits of senior officials between the foreign ministries of Japan andChina at vice-ministerial and director-general levels as they agree that the twocountries should maintain close communications at the time of discrepancy in opinions.
Fortunately, to my relief, such important meetings as Japan-China-ROK Trilateral
Summit and ASEAN Plus Three Summit have not been subject to adverse effect as yet.
However, it appears inevitable that bilateral high-level talks usually set up
back-to-back with these conferences would be affected in one way or another. Hence, weshould remain alert to future developments in the region with due attention to theabove-mentioned issues.
(This is an English translation of the article written by Mr. ISHIGAKI Yasuji, Delegate
for Japan to AALCO, as his personal view which originally appeared on the BBS“Hyakka-Somei” of CEAC on November 4, 2012.)