2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: ASEAN, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Financial Action Task Force, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

14th East Asia Summit

For: Preliminary & Mains

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Key Highlights of 14th East Asia Summit
India and East Asia Summit

News Flash

The latest edition of the East Asia Summit, a grouping of 18 countries including India, is being held in Bangkok. The summit vowed to scale up efforts to deal with terrorism, radicalisation and transnational crimes including by ramping up coordination with anti-terror watchdog FATF and relevant UN agencies.

Agenda of Summit

The agenda for this edition of the summit was to review the future direction of East Asia Summit co-operation and exchange views on regional and international issues.

Highlights & Significance

The summit will deepen cooperation with the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) and the FATF-style regional bodies.
The EAS also ensures the effective implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards to deal with terror financing.
The powerful bloc called for effective measures to counter terrorism including by containing terror financing.
EAS also asked for collaboration in containing transnational crime consistent with domestic laws and regulations within and between member countries.

East Asia Summit

It is the premier forum in the Asia-Pacific region to deal with issues relating to defence and security.
It was established in 2005 and plays a significant role in the strategic, geopolitical and economic evolution of East Asia.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN member states, East Asia Summit includes India, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Russia.
EAS meetings are held after annual ASEAN leaders’ meetings.
The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 14 December 2005.
Six priority areas: Environment and Energy, Education, Finance, Global Health Issues and Pandemic Diseases, Natural Disaster Management, and ASEAN Connectivity.

India and EAS

For India, EAS acts as an alternative to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
India’s membership to the EAS is a recognition of its fast-growing economic and political clout.
In order to build multi-faceted relations with ASEAN and other multilateral nations and strengthen bilateral relations, India has emphasised upon its Act East Policies for which EAS will prove crucial.
China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and the nature of its growing investments has led the ASEAN countries to view India as a potential power that could balance a rising China.
The ASEAN region along with India together comprises a combined population of 1.85 billion people, which is one-fourth of the global population and their combined GDP has been estimated at over USD 5 trillion.

Source: ET