The 3rd East Asia Forum in Beijing yesterday attracted over 100
officials, academics and business people from China, Japan, South
Korea and the ten ASEAN countries, and Wu Jianmin, the
president of China
Foreign Affairs University said a cohesive East Asia Community
is distant but progress towards it is continuing
steadily.
Wu said despite growing initiatives by the “10+3” countries to
create stronger links between northeast and southeast Asia, the
establishment of an East Asia Community "still has a long way to
go," adding there is no unified roadmap or timetable for charting
the course.
He said the overriding goal for each country is development of
its national economy, so economic cooperation is a focus in the
current stage of the process; but cooperation will expand to other
aspects including regional security and culture.
Wu said the establishment of an East Asia Community needs
understanding from world economic powers such as the US, and that
it is an unprecedented undertaking.
The 10+3 Summit Meeting last year identified the establishment
of an East Asia Community as a long-term goal and many ideas
including unified tariffs and a common Asian currency were topics
of the discussion at yesterday's event.
The first-ever East Asia Summit will be held in Malaysia next
month.
Wu said that though tensions in the relationship between China
and Japan produced a "difficult situation," this would "be resolved
at some time eventually."??
(China Daily November 1, 2005)