Malaysian PM outlines vision for EAC
Malaysian PM outlines vision for EAC
Eileen Ng, Agence France-Presse/Kuala Lumpur
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Monday outlined his vision for an East Asian Community (EAC) incorporating a free trade area, a non-aggression zone and political and security cooperation as Malaysia prepares to host an inaugural summit next year.
Abdullah said East Asian cooperation had become more urgent after the 1997 Asian financial turmoil, regional crises such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and bird flu epidemics as well as the terrorism threat.
The summit of East Asian nations in Kuala Lumpur next December will mark the first milestone in the "irreversible" journey toward an integrated region and send a powerful signal to the world of their deep level of trust and cooperation, he said when opening a regional forum here.
To chart the way forward, Abdullah listed six key markers: a regional charter, a free trade area, a monetary and financial cooperation pact, a zone of amity and cooperation to prevent an arms race, a transportation and communications network and a declaration of human rights and obligations.
"We can begin to chart our way forward to seeking to emplace certain clearly discernible milestones in the route map to the East Asian Community" of more than two billion people and a combined gross domestic product of $6.8 trillion, he said.
"We must strategize to make the leap forward toward an East Asia Free Trade Area... a stable and prosperous East Asia would be a major contribution to world peace, security and prosperity."
But Abdullah said issues such as tensions on the Korean peninsula, overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, regional terrorism and pockets of internal strife could obstruct the creation of an EAC and must be addressed urgently.
Malaysia notched up a victory at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Laos last week when leaders endorsed its proposal for a regional summit which would include Japan, China and South Korea, despite initial objections from Indonesia.
ASEAN has held annual dialogs with the three nations since 1997 under a loose framework known as ASEAN Plus Three. Analysts and diplomats said a formal summit would underscore the region's serious intent to become a European Union-style single market and community by 2020.
The EAC is the realization of a 1990 proposal by then-premier Mahathir Mohamad for an East Asian Economic Caucus, which failed to take off due to opposition from the United States which feared it would undermine the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
Mahathir, who retired in October last year after 22 years in power, said on Monday he was happy that the quest for an EAC was finally underway but insisted Australia should not be included.
"They are ethnic Europeans, they cannot be Asians," he said, adding that Canberra had "nothing" to offer the EAC.
ASEAN's foreign ministers have been tasked to work out the details, but host Abdullah has indicated that Australia and New Zealand could be invited to the summit.
South Korean former president Kim Dae-jung told the forum that East Asia was emerging as a new economic bloc in the new era but lacked solidarity compared to the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Citing the yawning development gap among regional countries as a key challenge he urged Asia, home to some 700 million of the world's poor, to boost efforts to alleviate poverty because "discontent and anger are bound to create a fertile ground for terrorism and crime."
The forum was attended by foreign ministers from Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines, officials from other member countries, regional diplomats and businessmen.
ASEAN groups Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.