Introduction

At the Singapore Summit on 24 November 2000, the leaders of ASEAN countries, China, Japan, and Korea agreed to establish the East Asia Study Group (EASG), as proposed by the President of the Republic of Korea (ROK). The leaders at the Brunei Summit on 5 November 2001 asked the EASG to submit its Final Report to the ASEAN+3 Summit in Cambodia in 2002. The EASG was officially launched on 17 March 2001, in Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam.

The EASG consists of thirteen SOM leaders of ASEAN countries, China, Japan, Korea, and the Secretary-General of ASEAN. The EASG was mandated to assess the recommendations of the East Asia Vision Group (EAVG) and, from that assessment, sort out a practical number of concrete measures that should be given high priority and are relatively easy to carry out. It was also commissioned to explore the idea and implications of an East Asian Summit and to submit its Final Report to the ASEAN+3 Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2002.

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