East Asia Summit

Why is in news? Union Minister Anupriya Patel attends East Asia Summit Economic Ministers’ Meeting in Cambodia

• This meeting reiterated India's commitment to strengthening the EAS as an ASEAN-led organisation and supporting the EAS Forum in strengthening regional economic architecture.
• The pivotal role of East Asia Summit in strengthening multilateralism and promoting peace, stability, and economic prosperity in the region.
• Also reiterated India’s willingness to collaborate with East Asian partners in the production of vaccines, generic drugs and medical technologies used for treatment of COVID patients.
• The meeting saw representation from all 10 ASEAN countries as well as eight partner countries including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.
• The Ministers exchanged views on global and regional economic developments including the outcomes of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, post-pandemic economic recovery efforts, measures adopted to mitigate the impact of global supply chains disruptions and strong inflation pressure.
• The East Asia Summit (EAS) is a regional forum held annually by leaders of, initially, 16 countries in the East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian and Oceanian regions, based on the ASEAN Plus Six mechanism.
• Membership expanded to 18 countries including Russia and the United States at the Sixth EAS in 2011.
• Since its establishment, ASEAN has held the central role and leadership in the forum.
• EAS meetings are held after the annual ASEAN leaders' meetings, and plays an important role in the regional architecture of Asia-Pacific.
• The East Asia Summit is the Indo-Pacific's prime forum for strategic dialogue at which all key partners meet to analyse political, security, and economic concerns faced by the Indo-Pacific. This forum possesses a major role to play in advancing closer regional cooperation.
• India is one of the founding members of the East Asia Summit. At the East Asia Summit in Bangkok in November 2019, India had unveiled India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), which is aimed at forging partnerships to create a secure and stable maritime domain.