Key Highlights of the East Asia Summit

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Context:

Recently, the Prime Minister of India attended the 19th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Vientiane, Lao PDR.

Relevance:

GS II: International Relations

Dimensions of the Article:

PM put a development-oriented approach in the Indo-Pacific region over expansionism.
Continued support for Nalanda University and requested the heads of EAS member countries to join the conclave of Heads of Higher Education.
Spearheaded discussions in the hall on global challenges with terrorism, cyber, and maritime threats that argued for solutions to conflicts being approached via dialogue.
PM conveyed his wishes to Malaysia on presiding as the new Chair of ASEAN and expressed India’s full support to it. Currently, Lao PDR is the ASEAN Chair.

Beginning in 2005, 16 participating countries comprised this grouping, with their first meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
These members were the 10 ASEAN countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea. ASEAN’s 10 member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- The United States and the Russian Federation joined at the 6th East Asia Summit in 2011.
Simply, the EAS is an ASEAN initiative and refers to the annual Meeting of Heads of States/Governments of these countries, where they are able to discuss common concerns and interests.
Its creation was based on the idea of enhancing cooperation among East Asian countries and those in the neighbouring regions.
Six priority areas of cooperation were identified –
- Environment and energy,
- Education,
- Finance,
- Global health issues and pandemic diseases,
- Natural disaster management,
- ASEAN Connectivity
In the past, the issues of claims over the South China Sea, the United Nations Convention on the Law Of the Sea, terrorism, the actions of North Korea and the conflict situation in Myanmar have been discussed by the countries.