ABSTRACT
On 14 December 1997, Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryūtarō of Japan, President Jiang Zemin of China and President Kim Young Sam of South Korea arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a joint summit meeting with the leaders of the ASEAN-10. Called at the initiative of ASEAN prior to its own summit proper, this inaugural ASEAN+3 meeting had been designed as a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Southeast Asian organization’s founding, but also as an informal opportunity to discuss mutual political, economic and security concerns. The degree of rivalry between Japan, China and South Korea, as well as rivalry between the ASEAN states themselves, and the problems engendered for interaction between all of them by the onset of the financial and economic crises in Southeast Asia in mid-1997, should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, this first exclusive gathering of all the major East Asian heads of state, and the first without the presence of a leader from the US, certainly indicated the increased recognition by all sides of convergent regional interests and the importance of regionbased dialogue. This was especially true given the challenges of globalization as demonstrated by the burgeoning financial and economic crises from July 1997 onwards, which looked set to undermine the East Asian economic ‘miracle’ of the previous two decades. In addition, Japan’s presence at the summit alongside China and South Korea indicated the increasing acceptance of it by the other East Asian states as a key partner, if not yet overt leader, in advancing regional and multilateral dialogue in the dimensions of politics, economics and security.
