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1st East Asia Summit Gathers Sixteen Regional Leaders, Kuala Lumpur, 14 December 2005
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Eminent Persons Group to Advise Leaders on the ASEAN Charter, Kuala Lumpur, 12 December 2005
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Australia Accedes to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 10 December 2005
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Economic Ministers Sign Agreements to Move ASEAN Economic Integration Forward, Kuala Lumpur, 9 December 2005
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ASEAN-China Eminent Persons Group Report, Kuala Lumpur, 9 December 2005
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ASEAN Launches the ASEAN Wildlife Law Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), Bangkok, 1 December 2005
1st East Asia Summit Gathers Sixteen Regional Leaders
Kuala Lumpur, 14 December 2005
Meeting largely in a “retreat” format without the presence of advisors and senior officials, the leaders of the sixteen participating countries of the 1st East Asia Summit (EAS) engaged in an exchange of views that focussed on energy cooperation, the response to avian flu, counter terrorism, maritime security, the removal of obstacles to trade and investment, and community building. The discussions were frank and candid - some leaders characterised the meeting as a gathering of old friends who knew one another well and were familiar with one another’s issues and concerns.
The leaders closed their inaugural meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 14 December 2005 with a commitment to work together to promote peace, stability and prosperity in East Asia.
Alongside the ten ASEAN Member Countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam), the other six EAS participating countries are Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand. Malaysia served as the chair of the 1st EAS.
As stated in the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the East Asia Summit signed at the end of the 1st EAS, the leaders agreed that the EAS will focus on fostering strategic dialogue and promoting cooperation in political and security issues; promoting development, financial stability, energy security, economic integration and growth, eradicating poverty and narrowing the development gap in East Asia; and promoting deeper cultural understanding and people-to-people contact. It was also agreed that the efforts of the EAS to promote community building in the region will be consistent with and reinforce the realisation of the ASEAN Community, and will form an integral part of the evolving regional architecture.
The EAS leaders also adopted the East Asia Summit Declaration on Avian Influenza Prevention, Control and Response.
The EAS will be held annually, back-to-back with the ASEAN Summit, and chaired by the ASEAN Member Country that assumes the Chair of ASEAN that year. It will be an open, inclusive, transparent and outward-looking forum with ASEAN as the driving force working in partnership with the other EAS participants.
The 2nd EAS will be held in the Philippines in 2006.
- Click here for the Chairman’s Statement of the First East Asia Summit, Kuala Lumpur, 14 December 2005
Eminent Persons Group to Advise Leaders on the ASEAN Charter
Kuala Lumpur, 13 December 2005
An Eminent Persons Group (EPG) comprising ten highly distinguished and well respected citizens from ASEAN Member Countries will examine and provide recommendations on the direction of ASEAN and the nature of the ASEAN Charter.
The EPG was established as ASEAN Leaders, meeting at the 11th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur on 12 December 2005, signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Charter.
The actual process of drafting the ASEAN Charter will be done by a High Level Task Force and will only begin after the EPG have submitted their recommendations to the ASEAN Leaders at the 12th ASEAN Summit in 2006 in the Philippines.
The Charter will serve as a legal and institutional framework of ASEAN. Essentially, it will confer a legal personality to ASEAN and determine the functions, develop areas of competence of key ASEAN bodies and their relationship with one another in the overall ASEAN structure. It will codify all ASEAN norms, rules, and values and reaffirm that ASEAN agreements signed and other instruments adopted before the establishment of the ASEAN Charter shall continue to apply and be legally binding where appropriate.
The ASEAN Charter will transform ASEAN from being a loosely-organised political association into a rules-based legal regime.
The EPG met for the first time on 12 and 13 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur at the sidelines of the 11th ASEAN Summit. Tan Sri Musa Hitam, EPG member for Malaysia, was elected as the chairperson of the group. The terms of reference for the EPG were also settled at this first meeting.
The Members of the EPG are:
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Brunei
Pehin Dato Lim Jock Seng
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade II of Brunei Darussalam
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Cambodia
Dr. Aun Porn Moniroth
Advisor to the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme National Economic Council of Cambodia
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Indonesia
Ali Alatas
Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia
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Laos
Mr. Khamphan Simmalavong
Former Deputy Minister of Lao People’s Democratic Republic
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Malaysia
Tan Sri Musa Hitam (Chairperson)
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
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Myanmar
Dr. Than Nyun
Chairman of the Civil Service Selection and Training Board of the Union of Myanmar
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Philippines
Fidel V. Ramos
Former President of the Philippines
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Singapore
Prof. S. Jayakumar
Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Law
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Thailand
Mr. Kasemsamosorn Kasemsri
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
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Viet Nam
Mr. Nguyen Manh Cam
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam
Australia Accedes to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia
Kuala Lumpur, 10 December 2005
Australia became the tenth state outside Southeast Asia to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia on 10 December 2005. In a signing ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur prior to the ASEAN Summit meetings that will begin on Monday, the ASEAN Foreign Ministers signed the Instrument of Extension following which Alexander Downer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, signed the Instrument of Accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.
The other nine non-ASEAN states which have acceded to the TAC are China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and the Russian Federation.
- Click here for the Instrument of Extension of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia by Australia
- Click here for the Instrument of Accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia by Australia
Economic Ministers Sign Agreements to Move ASEAN Economic Integration Forward
Kuala Lumpur, 9 December 2005
In line with ASEAN's aim to establish the ASEAN Economic Community by 2020, ASEAN Economic Ministers, meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 9 December 2005, signed three agreements, namely, the Agreement to Establish and Implement the ASEAN Single Window
to facilitate trade and investment through the expeditious release and clearance of goods and commodities by customs authorities and relevant government agencies; the The ASEAN-China Eminent Persons Group submitted its report to the ASEAN and China Ministers at Kuala Lumpur, 9 December 2005. The report comprises a review of ASEAN-China dialogue relations for the last 15 years and a set of recommendations to strengthen relations in the next 15 years and beyond. The report will be considered by the Leaders of ASEAN and China at the 9th ASEAN-China Summit on 12 December 2005.
ASEAN stepped up its efforts in the enforcement of CITES and other legislation for wildlife protection with the launch of the ASEAN Wildlife Law Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) on 1 December 2005 in Bangkok.
ASEAN-WEN is an integrated network among law enforcement agencies and membership of the network is open to officials from CITES authorities, customs, the police, prosecutors, specialised governmental wildlife-law enforcement organisations and other relevant law enforcement agencies. The network is expected to deliver an effective coordination and information sharing mechanism among the law enforcement agencies at national and regional levels in the fight against the illicit harvesting of and transnational trade in wild fauna and flora.
The establishment of ASEAN-WEN will promote the capacity of ASEAN to combat the organised trans-boundary criminal activities of wildlife trafficking and trade, as well as to effectively enforce CITES agreement in the region. The ASEAN region has long been targeted by illegal wildlife traders as a ‘hotspot’ in the lucrative multi-billion dollar global trade of wildlife, in which both live and processed goods of most species protected by CITES are traded, ranging from tigers and elephants to rare orchids and indigenous medicinal herbs to rare marine species, endemic reptiles and songbirds.
As a lead country in this initiative, Thailand will organise the first meeting of ASEAN-WEN in early 2006. Senior officials of all concerned agencies in ASEAN-WEN will be involved to draw out details of the priorities, terms and coordination tasks in this national and transnational networking system.
