Patience needed for East Asia grouping

Patience needed for East Asia grouping

The plan to create an East Asia Community, a loosely-knit organization of Japan, China, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, by taking a leaf out of the European Union's book has begun to falter.

The foreign ministers of the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China and South Korea met in Laos. They decided to invite the leaders of India, Australia and New Zealand to the first summit conference for organizing the community to be held in Malaysia in December.

The number of countries represented will thus increase to 16 from the original 13, and the population of the proposed regional grouping will soar from 2 billion to 3 billion.

What is worrying is the fact that Japan's presence has hardly been felt in the work to create the East Asia Community. Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura failed to visit Laos before the foreign ministers' meeting was held because he was preoccupied with gaining support for Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The Japanese delegation received a chilly reception in Laos. Japan's odds to become a permanent member of the Security Council will worsen if it does not pay sufficient attention to its home turf among Asian countries. -- The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo