HONG KONG -- The inaugural meeting of the East Asia Summit (EAS) -- including all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus six other countries in the region -- went off without a hitch, except for the rather serious fact that China and Japan were not talking to each other.
In fact, one of the bigger stories to emerge from Kuala Lumpur, where the heads of the 16 countries met, was an incident in which Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi needed a pen to sign the declaration of the East Asian Summit and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao handed him one. That was one of the few fleeting moments of contact between the Chinese and Japanese leaders.
Even the host, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi of Malaysia, said in a statement: "We are concerned about the developing dichotomy in Japan-China relations, which we consider as one of the main pillars of East Asia cooperation. We believe that it is important for both countries to manage their relations well."