New Delhi, December 9
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh travels to Malaysia on December 11 to be with leaders from 16 countries to attend the high-sounding First East Asia Summit, he will be hoping to build a free trade area extending from Mumbai to New Zealand’s Christchurch, and finally expand the area, which covers 3 billion people — the worlds’ largest of its kind.
But a reality check may be awaiting the leaders of these 16 countries as participating countries are still quite divided over some questions and a fierce controversy has already generated on the exclusion of the world’s sole super power, the United States, from the December 14 summit.
On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be in Malaysia at the relevant time. Russia has so far failed to get entrance and it is understood that an ASEAN plus-Russia summit has been scheduled before the East Asia Summit to tie up loose ends for Russia’s entry into the outfit.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi went on record on December 5 to say that “the East Asian community is a process to wean Asia from over-dependence on the United States — economically and politically.”
The 1997 economic crisis, when the region heavily invested in US dollars suffered a financial meltdown after their currencies nose-dived and the dollar became too expensive for trade, was the catalyst that reinforced the need for East Asia to work together, Mr Abdullah said. “In all studies and recommendations, the question concerning the participation of the United States in the proposed East Asia Summit never arose as an issue,” he said.
The absence of the US from the summit has drawn a great deal of debate about whether the world’s sole superpower has lost its influence in the region, but Mr Abdullah merely put it as simply that “The United States has not requested to participate in the East Asia Summit.”
