Kuala Lumpur makes fresh plug for EAEC

Kuala Lumpur makes fresh plug for EAEC

JAKARTA (Kyodo): Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi said yesterday the proposed East Asian Economic Caucus
(EAEC) promoted tirelessly by his country is being wrongly
perceived as a potentially divisive force among the members of
the 18-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"There is no ground for external concern that the EAEC would
draw lines between APEC members," Abdullah said in a speech at
the opening session of a two-day ministerial meeting of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Pointing to the relatively trouble-free existence of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Australia-New
Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) group, he said, "If NAFTA
or CER members within APEC cannot divide the group, nor can the
EAEC."

"Open regionalism, which APEC subscribes to, does not and
should not prohibit the right of association of like-minded
countries," he said.

First mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in
1990, the EAEC is envisaged as a loose consultative forum
grouping ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea as its core members.

It would exclude such APEC members as the United States,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand, some of which have dismissed
the proposed caucus as, at best, a distraction from APEC and
urged Japan and South Korea not to agree to it.

While the seven members of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam --
differ in their enthusiasm for the EAEC, ASEAN as a group has
agreed to pursue it as a caucus within APEC.

A draft of a joint communique to be issued today at the end of
the meeting says the ministers note "the increasing acceptance of
the concept and the rationale for the establishment of such a
caucus among the countries of the region."