The 23rd Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council of East Asian Community (CEAC) was held on December 19th at the conference room of Japan Forum on International Relations to discuss the achievements of the 11th ASEAN+3 (APT) Summit and the 3rd East Asia Summit (EAS), which were held in November 2007 at Singapore. CEAC invited Mr. IHARA Junichi, Deputy Director‐General, Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan to report mainly about these two “Summits.”

    Mr. IHARA stated that the “Second Joint Statement on East Asian Cooperation” issued at the APT Summit could be evaluated as an outline of the basic direction for regional cooperation in the next decade. He also said that It was important the “Statement” confirmed that the APT should work as a main vehicle for building an “East Asian Community,” but a multi-layered regional cooperation was also needed for building a “Community.” He added that it was also worth noting it was decided a Japan-China-Korea summit would be held independently of the APT Summit, and this summit could be expected to play an important role for community building.

    In response to the report, the 11 participants present actively discussed the achievement of these two “Summits,” focusing mainly on the achievements and problems of the “ASEAN Charter” which was signed in advance of these ”Summits,” and the future prospects for building an “East Asian Community.”