Chapter 8 analyzes East Asian regionalism projects, which demonstrate that the choices of governments and non-state actors constitute the structure of East Asian international relations, albeit within evolutionary constraints. East Asian countries are not integrating in a European Union sense, but their desire for and efforts at regional cooperation remain strong. East Asian regionalism was underdeveloped compared to Europe and some other developing regions, but an economic regionalism open to non-East Asian countries emerged when the Cold War ended. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis trigged greater East Asian efforts at creating more exclusive economic and financial groups, but East Asia has shifted to mega regionalism since the early 2010s, reflecting growing great power rivalries between Japan, China, and the United States. Other East Asian countries, particularly those in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have their own agency and drive the process in more immediate terms.

This Chapter delves into the fast-evolving international regime for investment law and arbitration in Asia and assesses the influence of the European Union (“EU”) proactive investment policy in Asia. The EU is by far the world leading economic leader in foreign investment. However, the EU only is a recent actor in the field of international investment regulation. In this respect, treaties concluded with Singapore and Vietnam and current EU investment negotiations with Asian countries are examined in this Chapter as they are not only relevant for immediate participants but also for third countries, in particular in Asia where EU investors have a significant presence which will further increase. In this case, this Chapter provides a framework of analysis for understanding investment rulemaking in Asia and how EU investment policy is actually and potentially affecting the Asian regime for foreign investment. This Chapter suggests that the EU factor only encourages a recalibration (rather than a reset) of the Asian regime for investment regulation.

Although the substantive content of international investment law has traditionally been shaped by the capital-exporting States of Western Europe and North America, this dynamic has been gradually changing, with Asia and Asian States increasing in the prominence of their roles.Asia has become a global growth engine in recent years, and Asia has become a focal point in rule-making in international investment law.This is evidenced by the number of mega-regional and investment agreements which have been concluded in recent years which have Asia as their centre of gravity, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which have built on the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement.To this can be added the practice of individual States, such as Singapore and Vietnam, in negotiating investment protection agreements with the EU, as well as the Singapore Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation which placed Asia at the centre of developments in international commercial law.This chapter surveys the rich terrain of State practice in international investment law, and introduces the various chapters of this edited collection, which illustrate the Asian Turn in Foreign Investment.