Birth of Northeast Asian grouping imminent

By Eiichi Furukawa

TOKYO (JP): A proposal to establish a landmark private sector institution to promote dialog among three Northeast Asian countries of China, Japan and South Korea was tabled in a conference in Kyoto last month.

The conference, Building the Northeast Asia of the 21st Century, was sponsored by Reinin Ribao (People's Daily) of China, Asahi Shimbun of Japan and the Dong Aildo (East Asia Daily) of South Korea, all leading newspapers in their countries.

Despite the long history of close relations and communication in culture and trade among the countries in the region, the Northeast Asia region was not considered a single entity in recent decades. It was viewed instead as an area where heterogeneous countries were by chance located as neighbors.

However, various moves to identify the region as an area of cooperation and common destiny have been going on for some time. When visiting Japan in March 1994, South Korean President Kim Yong-sam proposed to Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa to establish a forum of consultation and cooperation among the three Northeast Asian countries.

In October 1995, a senior official of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs published an article in the Far Eastern Economic Review headlined Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo Triangle, which urged the formation of a regional grouping of the Northeast Asian countries.

The South Korean argument is that regionalism is flourishing all over the world. There are the European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the North American Free Trade Agreement, among others. Under the circumstances, a country is not able to have a voice in the international arena nor protect its interests properly unless it is part of a regional grouping.

If South Korea cannot join NAFTA or ASEAN, its only solution is to participate in a group of Northeast Asian countries. It is true that South Korea is a member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). But while all other APEC members are joining a neighboring regional group such as ASEAN, NAFTA and Oceanian Closer Economic Relation (OCER), only China, Japan and South Korea do not belong to any neighboring regional groups. It is natural for the three countries, therefore, to create a new regional group of their own.

It has been argued that these three countries cannot form a regional group because they are at odds with each other due to historical enmities and ideological differences.

But China embarked on a reform policy 19 years ago to removed the barriers with Japan and Korea over ideological issues. In regard to lingering memories of its 1930-1945 war with Japan, China has maintained since the early 1970's that the responsibility for the war lies with the Japanese military clique, not with the Japanese people. China now considers the issue of the war no longer hinders the development of constructive and mutually beneficial relations with Japan.

While problems of glorification of the war by minority groups of nationalists or thorny territorial issues crop up with Japan sometimes, the Chinese government has adopted a low key approach to handling the matters. Yet the attitude of the South Korean people towards Japan appears to be a more complex one.

President Kim Yong-sam declared in 1993 that South Korea would pursue a future oriented policy towards Japan. He now considers that promoting and deepening relations with Japan is one of the most important tasks for South Korean diplomacy. He agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto to meet twice a year in the personal and cozy atmosphere at resort towns far from Tokyo. Two meetings, one on an island in Korea and another in Beppu, a hot springs resort on Kyushu Island in Japan, were held in the past year.

It was under these circumstances that President Kim proposed the Northeast Asian grouping. The ideological differences and the memory of Korean and Chinese conflicts in the Korean war were officially buried in 1992 through the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Trade and investment relations are now flourishing. There remain no barriers to forming a neighboring regional group among the countries.

What is interesting and important is that a proposal of the Northeast Asian group originally came from South Korea, which was the victim of Japanese colonization.

Parallels in forging unity despite bitter past histories can be drawn with Europe. Germany and France fought three wars in 75 years before 1945, with France always the victim of German aggression. But after the end of World War II, it was French leaders such as Jean Monet who offered an olive branch to the Germans to proceed towards European integration.

In 1958, the European Economic Community (EEC) was inaugurated. It has become a foundation of peace in Europe for 40 years.

By the same token, the most important task for the Northeast Asian group is to establish and cement peace in the region. The effect will go beyond the region to affect the whole of Asia and the world.

The three countries have a number of issues to settle among themselves. When they talk about these issues bilaterally, they tend to think of them in terms of the past. When they talk about them in a group, however, they adopt the point of view of building the future of the group. This tendency has been seen in case of the European integration and ASEAN.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of both China and Japan expressed their interest in and approval of the proposal.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry appreciated that the principles of the action agenda of APEC trade liberalization, which was agreed upon at the Osaka APEC meeting in November 1995, was formulated in an Asian way. These were the principles of voluntary actions and flexibility. China considers these principles laid the foundation of the regional economic order in the Asia-Pacific region after the end of the Cold War. They further consider that it was possible through contributions made by cooperation among the delegations of China, Japan and South Korea.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry took the initial steps in realizing the above proposal. In September last year, the ministry sponsored a conference on Regional Cooperation and Security in Northeast Asia in Tokyo. In attendance were the directors of international affairs institutes affiliated to each of the foreign ministries of the three Northeast Asian countries.

The conference could be considered a preliminary step towards realizing an official Northeast Asian group. The government level APEC was established in 1989 after promotional activities for Pacific cooperation were conducted by a semi-official Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) started in 1980.

Why is the Northeast Asian grouping necessary when there is already APEC and plans are afoot for creating an East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC)?

The answer is that a regional group is not self contained in the new world order. In Europe, there is the EU-WEU system with West European countries as members. Then, there is NATO adding the membership of North American countries. Finally, there is the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with Russia and other neighboring countries.

By the same token, there would be a three-layer system in the Asia-Pacific region. At the broadest based level, there is APEC. At the middle level, there will be EAEC. As the neighboring regional groups, there will be ASEAN, NAFTA and CER, along with the proposed Northeast Asian Cooperation (NEAC).

With the stated good intentions of all three countries, it is expected the NEAC will be realized in the not too distant future.

The writer is director of the Japan Center for International Strategies.