Australia ponders place in Japan's East Asian Community

SYDNEY —

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s recently unveiled vision for an ‘‘East Asian community’’ has been welcomed by an unusual ally, Richard Woolcott, the ambassador responsible for developing Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s alternative proposal for an ‘‘Asia Pacific Community.’‘

‘‘It’s very good and useful that both the Hatoyama and Rudd governments are considering how regional cooperation may best be advanced,’’ Woolcott said.

Woolcott is a career diplomat who was instrumental in establishing the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 1989.

APEC is a 21-member, key regional body that meets annually to discuss trade, cooperation and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Woolcott said Australia is keen to learn more about the Hatoyama government’s views on regional arrangements and how they could be coordinated with Rudd’s version.

‘‘We’re not entirely clear yet on what the Japanese plans are and how they’d coordinate with our own, but we look to continuing discussions with Japan…on how we can work together to advance the idea of a broad Asia-Pacific community,’’ Woolcott said.

He said the leaders met recently on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York where they had discussion on ‘‘how best to promote ideas of community in the wider region.’‘

He expects they will follow up their discussions at the East Asian Summit being held during the ASEAN meeting in Thailand from Friday through Sunday.

Both leaders have advocated a need for greater regional cooperation across a range of economic, political and security issues, but their proposals differ in terms of membership.

Both proposals have been criticized for ambiguity in terms of scope.

Hatoyama first announced his idea for an ‘‘East Asian community’’ when he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao last month, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao recently confirmed support for the initiative.

Indonesia and South Korea have also expressed an interest in further developing Hatoyama’s proposal.

Hatoyama envisages the community as potentially consisting of Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

U.S. participation in the body is yet to be determined, but Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada recently omitted the country from a list of possible members.

Although details remain sketchy, Hatoyama’s vision could see greater cooperation in the areas of trade, counterterrorism, environment, and disaster relief operations.

The ‘‘East Asian community’’ is part of the recently elected Japanese prime minister’s broad move to reengage with Asia and strike a more independent role in Japan’s relationship with the United States.

Rudd raised his initiative for an ‘‘Asia Pacific Community’’ last June, in response to what he sees as a shortfall in the ability of existing institutions to deal with a broad range of regional economic, political and security issues.

He believes the current architecture lacks either the mandate or membership to deal comprehensively with current and future transnational issues, including territorial disputes, competition for scarce resources, climate change, terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

‘‘Prime Minister Rudd’s essential objective is to improve existing arrangements in a substantive way, without…adding another layer of leaders’ meetings to their already heavy agenda,’’ Woolcott said.

While membership in the Asia Pacific Community is yet to be finalized, it is likely the group would encompass a larger number of countries in the region, and include the United States.

Potential members would include Japan, China, Russia, India, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the 10 ASEAN members and the three South American members of APEC—Chile, Mexico, and Peru.

The key difference between the two proposals is the absence of the United States in Hatoyama’s approach.

Woolcott said U.S. participation is central to Rudd’s proposal because of its position as a major trading partner and strategic partner to many countries in the region.

While he admits there are existing institutions that do not include the United States and yet are still very effective, Woolcott added that the community needs to be comprehensive and inclusive if the region is to deal with future challenges.

Since the inception of Rudd’s ‘‘Asia Pacific Community’’ idea, Woolcott has traveled to 21 countries conducting high-level consultations to gauge reaction.

He said he has been encouraged by the mostly positive responses from across the region.

Rudd’s proposal now appears to be gaining momentum with government officials, academics and think tank staff from the 21 countries set to gather in Sydney on Dec 3-5 to begin discussions on the community’s mandate and membership.

In a recent article penned for the East Asia Forum website, Woolcott wrote that in 1989 he believed ‘‘APEC was an idea whose time had come (and) an Asia Pacific Community…is an idea whose time is coming.’’

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12 Comments

mushroomcloud at 12:44 AM JST - 2nd November

Hatoyama has a pretty good plan. Creating an East Asian Community, with China as the center, will benefit the regions tremendously as it will allow greater dialogue in all things economic and security related.

The creation of this plan also is acknowledgement, acceptance, and accomodation to China's rise as it would lock China in to the region's embrace, thereby increasing understanding between the member states and decreasing misunderstandings about China's intentions, be it military, economic related, or otherwise.
NeoJamal at 08:24 AM JST - 2nd November

Screw Pan Pacific dialogue, it ought to be China v.s. NAFTA v.s. ASEAN+Japan and Korea. How else could anyone seriously commit to such an "Asian Community"?
cow76 at 09:57 AM JST - 2nd November

Woolcott is the guy who told Suharto that Australia would look the other way while Indonesia invaded East Timor. 200 000 people died. So when he's talking about 'community', I start wondering about his definitions.
ronaldk at 12:42 PM JST - 2nd November

China's economic dominance, if it ever comes, will be short lived because of the demographic problem that will make Japan's seem mild in comparison. Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.
Junnama at 01:28 PM JST - 2nd November

Don't tell the Chinese that - they're expecting to get rich before they get old (sadly the numbers aren't playing out that way).

As an aside, how Aus fit in the community if none of the other countries play cricket?
biglittleman at 01:42 PM JST - 2nd November

I agree that India will be the next economic power of Asia. I think China will be the next USSR.
imomofo at 03:25 PM JST - 2nd November

I also agree India would be the next economic power in the world. Only if... we're living in an alternate universe where George Bush is a humanitarian, Mother Theresa is Hitler and Canada does not have universal health care. People, you got to wake up and smell the chai.... India is not gonna be the next anything, it's been in the gutters for a while and will be for the foreseeable future unless India gets it's head together.
Seiharinokaze at 03:55 PM JST - 2nd November

Historically speaking, China doesn't consider herself to be in East Asia. East Asia or east ocean 東洋 from the standpoint of China means Japan. China thinks she is the center of Asia or even the world. So China may rather think herself to belong to the Central Asia or more specifically values Shanghai Cooperation Organization (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) than any other regional framework.

Some day the organization may develop into a non-western alliance including ASEAN, Korea, Iran and even India vying with NATO. East Asia pales beside such a dynamic formation of emerging countries many of which are also rich in natural resources. East Asia itself may even be incorporated into SCO. Will then Australia have a place in it? And I also wonder if Japan will show her mettle if not cowardice to sit on the fence for a time between Eurasian Community vs Asia Pacific Community, though I personally have a hunch that Australia may be a major player of 22nd century.
imomofo at 06:47 PM JST - 2nd November

I also agree India would be the next economic power in the world. Only if... we're living in an alternate universe where George Bush is a humanitarian, Mother Theresa is Hitler and Canada does not have universal health care. People, you got to wake up and smell the chai.... India is not gonna be the next anything, it's been in the gutters for a while and will be for the foreseeable future unless India gets it's head together.
mushroomcloud at 10:29 AM JST - 3rd November

'Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.'

When you mean 'long term', do you mean within 50-100 years? I think India could be one of the dominant economies in Asia, but in order to do so, India needs to fix it's horrendous infrastructure, as their roads/railroads, bridges, power grids and ports are in a terrible state of decay. You need good infrastructure (like China's) in order to get your product to market.

"India's electricity shortage reached an eight-year high last year. Highways, which move almost 80 percent of the goods transported in India, account for only about 2 percent of the country's roads. It takes an average 85 hours to unload and reload a ship at India's major ports, 10 times longer than in Hong Kong or Singapore, according to government figures."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a_K0nqM9qEhM&refer=india
mushroomcloud at 10:36 AM JST - 3rd November

'Long term I put my money on India as the dominant economy in Asia.'

When you mean 'long term', do you mean within 50-100 years? I think India could be one of the dominant economies in Asia, but in order to do so, India needs to fix it's horrendous infrastructure, as their roads/railroads, bridges, power grids and ports are in a terrible state of decay. You need good infrastructure (like China's) in order to get your product to market.

"India's electricity shortage reached an eight-year high last year. Highways, which move almost 80 percent of the goods transported in India, account for only about 2 percent of the country's roads. It takes an average 85 hours to unload and reload a ship at India's major ports, 10 times longer than in Hong Kong or Singapore, according to government figures."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a_K0nqM9qEhM&refer=india
ronaldk at 11:05 AM JST - 5th November

Besides the demographic time bomb in China that people fail to acknowledge, it is a closed government not subject to the scrutiny of the people. I am highly doubtful that such a system can reach the same ranks as EU/North America/Japan economically. USSR tried and failed as it manipulated the numbers for as long as it could.

India, however bad its government, the warts and knobs are there for all to see, thus there is a chance that it can overcome its liabilities and exceed China.