East Asia Summit

East Asia Summit

News: Recently, India’s EAM Dr. S Jaishankar attended the 13th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and utilized the opportunity to engage in discussions with China's top diplomat, on the sidelines of the event.

What is EAS?
• The EAS was established in 2005 as an ASEAN-led initiative.
• The EAS is the only leader-led forum in the Indo-Pacific that brings together all key partners to discuss political, security and economic issues of strategic importance.
• The EAS operates on the principles of openness, inclusiveness, respect for international law, ASEAN centrality, and ASEAN’s role as the driving force.
• The EAS has six priority areas of cooperation: environment and energy; education; finance; global health issues and pandemic diseases; natural disaster management; and ASEAN connectivity.

Which are member countries?
• The EAS comprises 18 member - the 10 ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and eight dialogue partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States).

India and EAS:
• India has been a founding member of the EAS since 2005 and has actively participated in all its meetings and activities.
• We see EAS as a key platform for enhancing its Act East Policy and strengthening its strategic partnership with ASEAN and other regional countries.
• At the East Asia Summit in Bangkok in November 2019, India had unveiled India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), which is aimed at forging partnerships to create a secure and stable maritime domain.