9 - Towards the East Asian Community

Summary

Early in the 1990s the then Malaysia's Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad put forward an initiative called the East Asia Economic Group (EAEG). Introduced during former Chinese Premier Li Peng's visit to Kuala Lumpur, in December 1990, the EAEG was Malaysia's response to the emergence of trade blocs in Europe and the Americas, and was an attempt to create a regional economic entity devoid of any role for Western powers, in particular the United States. Highly critical of the evolution of trade blocs in the post- Cold War era, Mahathir rationalized that in the face of this development, an Asian bloc was required to ensure “even economic development” and “fair trade” for nations of East Asia. As Dr Mahathir observed in a recent interview, “a long time ago we had the East Asian grouping, this was something to balance the grouping of Europe and that of NAFTA. I thought that we needed something to counterbalance that”.

The EAEG also represented Malaysia's reaction to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, which, according to Dr Mahathir, was dominated by the United States and its allies. From the beginning, Mahathir's idea was opposed by Washington as inconsistent with the development of the world economy. The United States urged Asian countries to embrace instead the APEC. Under U.S. pressure the EAEG was changed into the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC). Later in 1993, the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore endorsed the EAEC as a “caucus within APEC”. Nevertheless, the United States still interpreted the conception as an attempt to create a “caucus without Caucasians”. The initiative was badly wounded but not killed.

After the Asian financial crisis, the idea of East Asian cooperation received another impulse. Summit meetings in 1997–99 between ASEAN and three Northeast Asian powers have since developed into the format of ASEAN+3 (APT), with future evolution into an ambitious regional community.