The main problem in Southeast Asia is economic development, a problem the United States and Japan are largely responsible for. Southeast Asia, the U.S., and Japan are all involved, therefore, in determining how to achieve economic viability in Southeast Asia—where a new era of peaceful coexistence has begun after decades of war.

Leaders in Southeast Asian countries, including the Socialist states in Indochina, agree that the most pressing problem is how to overcoihe extreme hardships and difficulties in order to achieve economic and social development.