Foreign Ministers from thirteen East Asian countries are scheduled to meet in Bangkok on 26 July in an effort to advance the region's cooperation agenda launched by their heads of state and government in Manila last year. The East Asian leaders issued the Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation at their third annual summit held in Manila in November 1999.
The East Asian Foreign Ministers will meet on the occasion of the 33rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and Post Ministerial Conferences from July 24 to 29. ASEAN is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. They will be joined by China, Japan and the Republic of Korea in the Thai capital. The United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) has been invited to attend the opening ceremonies as guest of the host country.
On a parallel track, the ASEAN Trade Ministers met with their Northeast Asian counterparts last May in Yangon. The Trade Ministers agreed to promote cooperation in eight areas - trade, investment and technology transfer; information technology and e-commerce; the Mekong River Basin development; human resource development; private sector participation through an East Asian Business Council; agriculture, industry and tourism; small and medium enterprises; scientific and technological development; and coordination of positions in various international and regional fora.
As a proportion of total East Asian trade (exports plus imports) with the world, intra-East Asian trade has risen from 33 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 1990 to about 50 percent in 1998.
To promote cooperation in finance, Ministers of Finance of East Asian countries met in Chiang Mai also in May. They agreed to establish a regional financing arrangement to supplement the existing international facilities. As a start, East Asian countries have launched the “Chiang Mai Initiative,” which involves an expanded ASEAN Swap Arrangement under which a network of bilateral swap and repurchase agreement facilities among ASEAN countries, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea will be established.
East Asia is estimated to have combined foreign exchange reserves of about US$ 1 trillion.
North Korea will participate, for the first time, in the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will convene on 27 July. The ARF serves as the only multilateral forum promoting political and security dialogue and cooperation in the Asia Pacific region. The ARF is composed of the ten members of ASEAN plus Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
In Bangkok, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers are expected to finalize the terms of reference for the establishment of the ASEAN Troika. The idea of an ASEAN Troika was proposed by Thailand Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai at the ASEAN Informal Summit in Manila last year. ASEAN is also working on the rules of procedures of the High Council for pacific settlement of disputes.
