ABSTRACT
The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan announced that they would seek to build an ‘East Asian community’ in their Special Summit held in Tokyo in December 2003 (ASEAN and Japan, 2003a). This announcement cemented the two parties’ cordial relations, and demonstrated the rise of regionalism in East Asia. 1 The notion of East Asia, encompassing Northeast and Southeast Asia, has been under the spotlight in recent years. The development of the ASEAN Plus Three (APT), participated in by the members of ASEAN plus Japan, China and South Korea, has attracted much attention. The first summit meeting of the APT was held in November 1997, and at the second meeting, in December 1998, the leaders agreed to regularize the event. What can be regarded as an East Asian institution is, however, a web of bilateral and multilateral arrangements placed within the framework of the APT. When the ASEAN members hold their annual summit meeting, they also host an East Asian meeting, inviting the three Northeast Asian countries – Japan, China and South Korea – known as ‘ASEAN Plus Three’. They also hold separate meetings with each of these three countries, known as ‘ASEAN Plus One’. Furthermore, the three Northeast Asian countries meet among themselves as well. In addition, within the framework of the APT, not only annual summit meetings but also ministerial ones in various areas are convened at different times of the year. It should be mentioned that the APT, the core of these meeting arrangements, is not an international organization established on the basis of a treaty. It is, rather, an arena within which participants put forward their international initiatives and agendas for regional cooperation.
