East Asian Community

East Asian Community (EAC) is a proposed trade bloc for the East Asian and Southeast Asian countries that may arise out of either ASEAN Plus Three or the East Asia Summit (EAS).

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed on 8 August 1967 by the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore, as a display of solidarity against communist expansion in Vietnam and insurgency within their own borders.

In 1990, Malaysia proposed a creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus composed of the ten-members of ASEAN (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand), the Peoples' Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea. This was also a failure since it faced strong objections from Japan and the United States

After a series of failures, ASEAN and its neighbors created another regional grouping the ASEAN Plus Three, established in 1997 and institutionalised in 1999. The significance of this grouping was demonstrated in the response to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. ASEAN Plus Three appeared to take the role of community building in East Asia.

In 1999, a Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation was issued on the topic of East Asian integration by ASEAN.

In 1998, ASEAN Plus Three established The East Asian Vision Group of eminent persons which reported in 2001. In turn in 2001 the East Asian Study Group was established. In 2002, ASEAN Plus Three received the Final Report of the East Asian Study Group. This included a recommendation to establish an East Asia Summit.

As a result, the status of ASEAN Plus Three is unclear with the existence of the more recent East Asia Summit established in 2005 following this process and involving all the members of ASEAN Plus Three, together with India, Australia and New Zealand, otherwise known as ASEAN Plus Six.

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