Kuala Lumpur, December 14
A new grand pan-Asia grouping was born today with the holding of the first-ever East Asia Summit(EAS) here today and India telling the 16-nation body that the development created a virtual East Asian economy and presented a cusp of new opportunities.

The Kuala Lumpur Declaration, signed by the leaders, said the participating countries established the EAS as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues of common interests and concerns with the aim of promoting peace and economic prosperity in East Asia.

The declaration said the EAS would focus on fostering strategic dialogue and promoting cooperation in political and security issues to ensure peaceful co-existence, financial stability and energy security.

The leaders resolved that the EAS would be convened annually along with the ASEAN summit and the next EAS would be held in the Philippines. Participation in the EAS would be based on the criteria for participation established by the ASEAN.

The holding of the summit is an acknowledgement of the changing geo-political landscape that has warranted greater politico-socio-economic cooperation from New Delhi to Wellington. Leaders from the 10-nation ASEAN and India, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia met at a time when the region is grappling with problems like bird flu, AIDS, terrorism and natural disasters.

The idea of the EAS was first mooted two decades ago, though at that time India was nowhere in the frame of a proposed East Asian community. The EAS is the first milestone towards creating a bloc similar to the powerful European Union that took nearly half a century to get 25 countries together. Such an Asian network is required, particularly in the backdrop of the meltdown of several Asian economies during the financial crisis in 1997, when some were growing at 7 per cent annually, unfurled their weaknesses.

Some time was reserved during the summit to enable President Vladimir Putin of Russia to address the leaders. Russia is keen on joining the EAS. He informed his Asian counterparts what his country could offer, besides missile technology.

This huge economic canopy, like Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has envisioned, could eventually shelter impoverished South Asian economies like resources-rich Nepal and strife-torn Sri Lanka. If the East Asian community finally comes into being, it would inevitably lead to a significant fall in economic tariffs and boost poverty-alleviation programmes in the region.

Leaders also came up with a separate declaration on avian flu. They noted that the avian influenza outbreak had spread to a number of countries in the region and that its impact was not confined to the poultry industry alone but also public health, livestock production, trade, tourism, economic and social development of the region.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his informal remarks at the EAS, said it was a “historic meeting” and “we will not stop at FTAs (free trade agreements) but aim at deeper economic cooperation.”

He said: “Time has come for Asia to play her part in the world. You have my word, we will.”

He quoted Pandit Jawaharlal |Nehru as saying that time was moving fast in Asia and the old continent was waking from its slumber.

The Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Rajiv Sikri, quoted the Prime Minister as saying that "Pandit Nehru’s future was our present and the world’s eyes were on us and the hopes and aspirations of millions of people made the task of EAS leadership a unique responsibility."