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"Two Big Ideas" Emerge From ASEAN Leaders' Discussions
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told a press conference that "two big ideas" about forming a East Asia study group and establishing East Asian free trade area emerged from the discussions at the East Asian leaders meeting Friday afternoon.
Noting that the leaders had a good meeting and free-flowing discussions, Goh said that there was already a suggestion that there should be a East Asian study group to see how East Asian countries could cooperate in the future and study the feasibility, implications, complications, benefits and negative implications of the 10+3 (10 ASEAN countries plus China, Japan and South Korea) evolving into a East Asian summit.
The study group will concentrate mainly on economic and social issues and it can also extend its study to politics, he added.
The Singapore prime minister said there was another idea proposing to study the possibility of establishing a free trade zone of East Asia.
He made clear that the idea on East Asia free trade zone is "open regionalism" and does not mean excluding the U.S. from the region.
Goh noted that the three leaders from northeastern Asia have a sense of importance of cooperating with ASEAN and indicated their intention to help ASEAN to achieve its goal of integration.
Several specific measures have been proposed to help ASEAN in the course of its integration, he said, citing the pledge to help bridge the railway gaps now existing between the southern parts of the trans-Asia railway and Japan's pledge of 15 billion U.S. dollars for IT development in Southeast Asia.
Asked whether the current 10 + 3 meeting will evolve into 10 + 4 to include India, Goh gave a negative answer, saying ASEAN now concentrates on the 10 + 3 process.
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