Japan pushes for new East Asian bloc

Reuters, by Yoko Nishikawa, Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:51am EDT

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L) greets next to his wife Kristiani Yudhoyono upon their arrival Hua Hin airport for the 15th ASEAN Summit at the resort city of Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, October 24, 2009. (REUTERS/Rungroj Yongrit/Pool)

HUA HIN, Thailand (Reuters) - Japanese and Chinese leaders entered talks on Saturday with their Asian counterparts focused heavily on whether the region should pursue an EU-style bloc, and whether Washington should be involved.

Top Japanese officials backed a U.S. role for their proposed East Asian Community, as they pitched the idea of an integrated economic grouping at a summit of 16 Asia-Pacific leaders in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin.

"Japan places the U.S.-Japan alliance at the foundation of its diplomacy," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a meeting with Southeast Asian leaders, according to a Japanese government spokesman.

"I would like to firmly promote regional cooperation in East Asia with a long-term vision of forming an East Asian Community," Hatoyama said.

The talks are part of a three-day leaders' summit which got off to a rancorous start on Friday, marred by a diplomatic spat between Thailand and neighbor Cambodia, a budding trade feud over rice import tariffs and a few no-shows in the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Southeast Asian leaders met as a group on Saturday with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea, a day after launching a much-criticized human rights commission as part of their own plans to build their own community by 2015.

The setting gives Asia's economic titans, China and Japan, a chance to jockey for influence in Southeast Asia, a region of 570 million people with a combined $1.1 trillion economy that is quickly pulling out of a global recession.

Japan's newly minted government sees its influence bound to an East Asian Community, an idea for a new regional trading bloc inspired by the European Union and including India, Australia and New Zealand, along with ASEAN countries.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will push another idea at the summit centered around a new forum of Asia-Pacific nations and the United States for economic, security, environmental and political crises, according to Australian media.

Washington has stepped up Asian diplomacy under the Obama administration and fears missing out on such groupings, especially with Japan's new leaders considering redefining their close security alliance while deepening their Asian ties.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, told reporters in Beijing this month "critical dialogues that touch on security, economic, and commercial issues should involve the United States."

UNCERTAIN U.S. ROLE

Accounting for nearly a quarter of global economic output, an East Asian Community could overtake ASEAN's existing trade ties with Japan, China and South Korea, but would also vie with the "Group of 20," which anointed itself last month as the pre-eminent forum for global economic coordination.

Exactly how Washington would participate is uncertain.

Asked if U.S. involvement meant Washington would be a member of the Community, a Japanese government official told reporters on Saturday: "It remains unclear. We have to see how multilateral meetings will turn out today."

In Tokyo, the move is seen as an attempt by Japan to ease growing worries about friction over the long-planned reorganization of the U.S. military presence in Japan, the first big test of ties between Washington and Japan's month-old government.

China has been cool to the idea of a community, wary it could promote Japanese influence at a time Beijing is rapidly expanding trade, investment and diplomatic links across Southeast Asia -- from building sleek new government offices in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to working closely with reclusive Myanmar.

"China wants to establish healthy relations with the new government in Japan, so it is not going to object to discussing this idea," said Shi Yinhong, a regional security professor at Beijing's Renmin University.

"But everybody understands the idea of an East Asia Community is extremely far off," he added.

Leaders from across Asia arrived at the beach resort under a blanket of security, including a security force of 18,000 backed by a handful of military gunships, with host Thailand determined to avoid a rerun of embarrassing mishaps at past summits.

The summit was initially scheduled for December last year but was postponed when anti-government protestors shut down Bangkok's airports. It was moved to the Thai resort area of Pattaya in April but was subsequently aborted when a rival protest group broke through police and army lines and stormed the summit venue.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing; Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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