FACTBOX, September 7. /TASS/. On September 7, 2023, the 18th East Asia Summit will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

TASS FACTBOX editors have reviewed a material about this forum.

History, participants and structure

The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a platform for dialogue between leaders of the Asia-Pacific region on a wide range of issues.

In November 2004, the decision to hold such meetings was taken at a forum held within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the ASEAN Plus Three format. These ten ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The first East Asia Summit was convened in 2005 in Kuala Lumpur. Initially, it was viewed as the mechanism for forming a new interstate association - the East Asian Community (EAC). As of today, the issue of the creation of the EAC remains unresolved, but the format of the East Asia Summit has remained the same.

The objectives and principles of the EAS are stated in the Kuala Lumpur Declaration (2005). It says that the EAS was established to "discuss political-economic issues of interest" in order to "maintain peace, promote stability and economic prosperity in the East Asian region". The document states that the EAS is an "open, inclusive, transparent and outward-looking" forum.

Summits held annually within framework of ASEAN meetings

In 2005-2010, 16 states (ASEAN Plus Six) were represented there: the ASEAN Plus Three members, as well as Australia, India and New Zealand, which joined them. Russia and the United States have been attending since 2011. These 18 countries account for almost 53% of the world's population (about 4.2 billion) and 60.4% of the world's GDP (about $60 trillion).

The EAS is organized by the ASEAN chair country (Indonesia holds the ASEAN chairmanship in 2023). All decisions at the summits are taken by consensus. Apart from the gatherings of leaders, meetings of foreign ministers have been held annually since 2011. Representatives of sectoral agencies also meet on a regular basis. A mechanism for discussion of current tasks by the permanent representatives of the EAS member countries to ASEAN has been in place since 2016. The forum does not have its own secretariat; its functions are performed by the ASEAN Secretariat located in Jakarta (Indonesia).

Activities

Environment and energy, education, finance, global health issues, disaster management, economic cooperation, trade, and food security have been identified as priority areas for cooperation among EAS member countries. The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia was established in 2008 to provide recommendations for the development of economic integration in East Asia.

The EAS member states have adopted a number of documents, including declarations on energy security and environmental protection (2007), on principles of mutually beneficial relations (2011), on regional response to the threat of malaria and measures to improve the effectiveness of antimalarial drugs (2012), and on food security (2013). The participants' attention in recent years has been focused on the migration issue and promotion of cooperation in the field of infrastructure development in East Asia, as well as on combating money laundering, strengthening regional security, and combating terrorism. Thus, at the meeting in 2017, at the initiative of Russia, a statement on combating ideological challenges of terrorism, terrorist ideas and propaganda was adopted.

The latest 17th summit was held in November 2022 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During the debates, the situation in Ukraine was actively discussed. It was an unprecedented case in the history of the EAS when its participants paid so much attention to a regional issue outside Asia, as observers noted. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the joint final statement of the meeting was not adopted because the United States and its partners insisted on an unacceptable assessment of the situation in and around Ukraine.

The Russian Foreign Ministry considers the EAS platform as "an important element of the multipolar architecture of regional security, which has the potential for the development of mutually beneficial, multilateral cooperation". Russia is usually represented at EAS forums by the Prime Minister or the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Russian President Vladimir Putin has addressed the East Asia Summit four times: in 2005 in Kuala Lumpur (then Russia was invited as a special guest), in 2018 in Singapore, and in 2020-2021 via video conference. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is attending this year's forum.