Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is attending the 4th India-Asean Summit to further India's 'Look East' policy, met Japan's Prime Minister on Tuesday morning. Manmohan Singh is also scheduled to meet President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea later in the evening.
India is all set to woo big investment from the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region. On the sidelines of his meeting with the Malaysian prime minister, Singh had said that India's destiny is increasingly linked to the South East region.
Details of the outcome of Singh's meeting with the Japanese prime minister are awaited.
Even as the stage is set for the first East Asian Summit to be held on Dec 14 in Kuala Lumpur, the Association of South East Asian Nations has managed to ensure that EAS would function only under the umbrella of Asean+3 (ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea).
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that EAS will not replace Asean+3.
Moreover the new grouping would not be confrontational towards other organisations, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation.
The EAS is seen as the first step towards creating an East Asian community that would rival the European Union and North America Free Trade Agreement.
The EAS would be held annually and back-to-back with the Asean Summit.
Concerned over China's dominant role in Asean+3, countries like Japan, Indonesia and Singapore wanted to expand regional membership to an Asean+3+3 structure by inviting India, Australia and New Zealand.
Interestingly, the grand scale of EAS and the involvement of a regional powerhouse like India worried China and other Asean countries, led by Malaysia.
However, the dispute appears to have been resolved. In a summit statement, ASEAN said the group would remain "the driving force" for regional integration, although EAS "will form an integral part of the evolving regional architecture."
The statement also added that EAS and Asean+3 "should move on parallel tracks without overlapping and complement one another."
