The East Asia Summit
The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a regional Leaders’ forum for strategic dialogue and action on key challenges facing the East Asian region. The EAS is a significant regional grouping with an important role to play in advancing closer regional integration and cooperation, at a time of particular dynamism in East Asia. Australia participated, as a founding member, in the inaugural EAS held in Kuala Lumpur on 14 December 2005.
Membership of the EAS comprises the ten ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea. The 16 member countries represent collectively 49 per cent of the world’s population, account for almost 30 per cent of global GDP (according to IMF purchasing power parity GDP figures), and receive nearly 60 per cent of Australia’s total exports.
The centrepiece of the EAS year is an annual Leaders’ Summit, usually held back-to-back with the annual ASEAN Summits. In addition, a number of ministerial and senior officials’ meetings are held during the year to progress Leaders’ initiatives.
East Asia Summit Documents
- Joint Press Statement of the East Asia Summit on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis, issued on 3 June 2009 (pdf)
- Joint Media Statement of the EAS Economic Ministers’ working lunch, issued on 28 August 2008 in Singapore (pdf)
- Chairman’s Statement of the EAS Foreign Ministers’ Informal Consultations, issued by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, HE Mr George Yeo, on 22 July 2008 in Singapore
- Chairman’s Statement of the Third EAS, issued by the Prime Minister of Singapore, HE Mr Lee Hsien Loong on 21 November 2007 in Singapore.
- Singapore EAS Leaders’ Declaration on Climate Change, Energy and the Environment, issued on 21 November 2007 in Singapore.
- Statement on the ROK Hostages in Afghanistan, issued by EAS Foreign Ministers on 31 July 2007 in Manila, the Philippines.
- Joint Ministerial Statement: The First EAS Energy Ministers’ Meeting, issued by EAS Energy Ministers on 23 August 2007 in Singapore.
- Chairman’s Statement of the Second East Asia Summit, issued by the Philippines’ President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on 15 January 2007 in Cebu, the Philippines.
- Cebu EAS Leaders’ Declaration on East Asian Energy Security, issued on 15 January 2007 in Cebu, the Philippines.
- Chairman's Statement of the First East Asia Summit, issued by the Malaysian Prime Minister, YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi, on 14 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the EAS, issued by EAS Leaders on 14 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia.
- EAS Leaders’ Declaration on Avian Influenza Prevention, Control and Response, issued on 14 December 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.