The 19th Policy Plenary Meeting of the
Council of East Asian Community (CEAC) was held on January 30th
at the conference room of Japan Forum on International Relations
to discuss how the 10th ASEAN+3 (APT) Summit and the 2nd East
Asia Summit (EAS), which were held respectively on January 14th
and 15th at Cebu Island, the Philippines, should be evaluated
in terms of the future objective of building an East Asian Community.
CEAC invited Mr. ATSUMI Chihiro, Director General of Southeast
and Southwest Asian Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
as a reporter in order to have a briefing mainly about these two
Summits.
Mr. ATSUMI stated that, taking into account that the EAS adopted
the "Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security,"
EAS should not be regarded anymore as a forum only to discuss
abstract matters from a broader point of view. He stressed the
importance of developing both APT and EAS as regional cooperation
frameworks making use of their respective merits.
Not a few participants (Think-tank Members and Intellectual Members
of CEAC), including Mr. KAKIZAWA Koji, former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, pointed out the importance of defining the meaning
of "Universal Values" in accurate terms as they were
envisaged as a basis for Community building in the region. An
easy accommodation of different interpretations of the concept
of "Universal Values," they said they were afraid,
could nullify the achievements of the efforts so far.
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