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Kuala Lumpur 2005. The 1st East Asian Summit
12 Dec. 2005. This Roundtable was organised by Asia Centre, the FIP and Asia Press. F. Debié (FIP), opened the session, chaired by Richard Artz, Vice President of Asia Press.
The day before the Summit, Asia Centre research fellows (F. Godement, S. Boisseau, J-P. Cabestan and J-L. Racine) addressed regionalism and the rise of nationalisms in Asia in a conference held at FIP. On the topic of regionalism: ASEAN is shaken by China’s pressure and has to consolidate before moving towards any wider institutionalisation enlargement. The Summit is being anticipated with an even greater interest nowthat the Japan-China-Korea Summit due take place along the ASEAN+3 meeting, has been cancelled. While India remains in China’s footsteps as far as its relations with ASEAN are concerned (ALE or strategic partner), Japan comes up with very concrete proposals. ASEAN fears dissolution but real progress are made on technical matters, such as environmental issues, maritime security in the straits, energy security, pandemic risks, etc. Yet this regional structure is confronted to the nationalism of both Japan and China. While there are obvious synergies between these two countries, they are also fundamental rivals in the region. Nonetheless, a “Power oligopoly”,seems better for Asia than a monopoly.