The East Asia Summit and the Regional Security Architecture

TH E R INE ST SA SUMMIT AND THE L ECURITY ARCHITECTURE Ralf Emnmers, Joseph Chinyong Liow, and See Seng Tan SCHOOL OF LAW UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies General Editor: Hungdah CHIU Executive Editor: Chih-Yu T. WU Associate Editor: Matthew Lyon Managing Editor: Chih-Yu T. WU Assistant Editor: Younyoung LEE Editorial Advisory Board Professor Robert A. Scalapino, University of California at Berkeley Professor Bih-jaw LIN, National Chengchi University Dr. Ying-jeou MA, Chinese Society of International Law Professor Toshio SAWADA, Sophia University, Japan All contributions (in English only) and communications should be sent to: Chih-Yu T. WU University of Maryland School of Law 500 West Baltimore Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201-1786, USA All publications in this series reflect only the views of the authors. While the editor accepts responsibility for the selection of materials to be published, the individual author is responsible for statements of facts and expressions of opinion contained therein. Subscription is US $40.00 per year for 4 issues (regardless of the price of individual issues) in the United States and $45.00 for Canada or overseas. Checks should be addressed to MSCAS. Tel.: (410) 706-3870 Fax: (410) 706-1516 Price for single copy of this issue: US $12.00 ISSN 0730-0107 ISBN 1-932330-32-1 @Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, Inc. THE EAST ASIA SUMMIT AND THE REGIONAL SECURITY ARCHITECTURE Ralf Emmers, Joseph Chinyong Liow, and See Seng Tan* TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................. I. INTRODUCTION ARCHITECTURE SECURITY II. THE EVOLVING IN EAST ASIA ................................ Defense Arrangements ........................... Multilateral Cooperative Institutions................. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) .... ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) ................ ASEAN Plus Three (APT) ................... Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD)............. "Minilateral" Initiatives .......................... Northeast Asian Trilateral Summit............... Trilateral Security Dialogue (TSD) ............. Norms and Principles ............................ Trends in Post-Asian Financial Crisis Regionalism .... III. THE EAST ASIA SUMMIT: FORMATION AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT.............. EAS Membership and ASEAN Leadership........... EAS Expansion: The U.S. Factor .................. The EAS: What is it for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . IV. THE EAS AND ONGOING DEBATES ON EAST ASIAN REGIONALISM........................ ASEAN Centrality: Is it Sustainable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inclusive versus Exclusive Regionalism .............. Process versus Outcomes ......................... V. CONCLUSION: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE EAS? ........................................ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................... 2 4 4 6 6 9 11 14 14 15 16 17 18 22 27 29 34 37 37 43 46 49 52 * RALF EMMERS is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Multilateralism and Regionalism Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. JOSEPH CHINYONG Llow is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at RSIS. SEE SENG TAN is an Associate Professor and Head of Research for the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at RSIS. The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Initiative, and to thank Joanna Phua for providing research assistance. (1) 2 CONTEMPORARY ASIAN STUDIES SERIES I. INTRODUCTION On December 14, 2005, representatives from sixteen nations gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the inaugural session of the East Asia Summit (EAS). The participants of that first meeting were the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan and South Korea, as well as Australia, New Zealand and India. As had been the case with China, Japan and Korea, the latter three states are dialogue partners of ASEAN and had either acceded or indicated their willingness to accede to ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia. The Summit, however, was not just exceptional due to its composition. More important perhaps was the unique oppor- tunity afforded its participants, through the EAS framework, to collectively shape the contemporary East Asian region in ways that would best maintain its economic dynamism, enhance regional security and preserve peace and stability. Opinions differ, but many regional observers concur that the origins of this Summit go back to the 1990 proposal for an East Asian Economic Grouping (EAEG) popularized by former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad. The rationale behind the EAEG concept was economic, ostensibly devised in response to the apparent post-Cold War gravitation towards the formation of regional trade blocs in Europe and North America. China had strongly supported Malaysia's initiative for an EAEG that would have excluded non-Asian states.' The EAEG lapsed, however, in the wake of Japanese reticence and a strong US objection as Washington refused to be excluded from East Asian economic cooperation. Reactions from several ASEAN members, such as Indonesia, were also lukewarm. In response, Mahathir modified it to an East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) in October 1991. The project was later revived through the ASEAN Plus Three (China, Japan and South Korea) summit of heads of state and government that first met in Kuala Lumpur in December 1997 and eventually through the creation of the EAS in December 2005. The EAS was rapidly defined as a venue where regional leaders could advocate and encourage progress on various issues ranging from energy security to transnational threats. Nonetheless, it was at first unclear to most what exactly the raison d'itre for the inaugural meeting of the EAS was. Institutional 1. See Joseph Liow Chinyong, "Malaysia-China Relations in the 1990s: The Maturing of a Partnership," Asian Survey, Vol. 40, No. 4, (July/August 2000), pp. 672-691. THE EAST ASIA SUMMIT 3 developments offered some clues, however, as to what might have been expected of the EAS. For more than a decade, multilateral cooperation in Asia - whether in the form of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) or most recently the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) - had been driven by ASEAN. The Association looked set to assume the leadership of this latest institutional expression of regionalism, one which included members outside East Asia. The ministers attending the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Vientiane, Laos in July 2005 affirmed their commitment to "keep the EAS open, outwardlooking and inclusive with ASEAN being the driving force." Furthermore, they welcomed the participation of countries such as China, Japan, Australia and India to the first Summit. Russia, Mongolia and Pakistan had also asked to join the EAS, but their applications were denied. The pu (...truncated)