SINGAPORE -- The East Asia Summit gets under way in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday under Malaysia's chairmanship. The EAS will be held concurrentl with the summits of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the ASEAN-Plus-Three (Japan, China, South Korea) grouping.
The occasion could prove decisive for Japan and China with regard to their role in East Asia, and for smaller Asian nations that fear getting caught in the increasing regional rivalry between the two.
Malaysia has lobbied hard for the EAS, which represents the fruition of a nascent idea of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had mooted an "East Asia Economic Caucus" in the early 1990s to "bring Asians together." It has taken 15 years for EAS to reach this point, even though ASEAN-Plus-Three was created in 1997 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.