ABSTRACT
The East Asia Summit (EAS) is one of the mechanisms established by ASEAN to manage the complex patchwork of cultural, economic, ethnic, historical and political relationships in the region. Indeed, there were armed conflicts, prolonged distrust and continuous friction among the regional countries. The EAS has brought the ASEAN member countries as well as China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), India, Australia and New Zealand into a big strategic forum. However, the EAS is still a fledgling organisation. Yet, collective activities in energy, security, finance, health, pandemics, education, natural disaster management and environment protection have started to give concrete form to the vision of regional dialogue and cooperation. The EAS engagement of China and India in a regional setting enriched by the presence of Australia and New Zealand created by the 10 Southeast Asian nations, which represent no threat to the interests of Beijing and New Delhi, is unprecedented.
