Introduction

The inaugural session of the East Asia Summit (EAS) was a much-awaited event in Asian affairs. Since the idea for an East Asian forum was first mooted by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad a decade and a half ago there has been great expectancy amongst the “East Asian” powers. The summit meeting on 14 December 2005 saw seventeen heads of state (including the Russian leader Vladimir Putin who was present as a guest) from a region extending from India and Japan to New Zealand come together at Kuala Lumpur for the session.

Attending leaders from ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), South Korea, China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand, in the “Kuala Lumpur Declaration” of 14 December 2005 pledged themselves to work towards realizing the dream of building an East Asian Community. This, according to the Declaration, would be done through a “broad based dialogue on strategic, political and economic issues of common interests”. In the course of the first summit, issues like “financial stability, energy security, economic integration, growth, and trade and investment expansion, narrowing down of the developmental gap and eradication of poverty, and good governance” were given special emphasis. In addition to these broad-based ideals, many specific concerns common to this region were also discussed.

Although over the past few years there have been many positive developments in the Asian region, there still remain many deep-rooted problems that require joint effort to tackle and eradicate; terrorism, poverty, religious extremism, fundamentalism, piracy, communicable diseases and political instability, to name but a few. The EAS has the potential to address them.

Although the first EAS met for only three hours, the most noteworthy achievement was the decision to hold the summit annually alongside the ASEAN summit and under the chair of ASEAN. This decision, at least for the foreseeable future, puts the ASEAN member-states firmly in the driving seat.