On August 2, 2019, the annual ASEAN"10+3" Foreign Ministers' Meeting and East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting were held in Bangkok, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting was held in Beijing. With regional cooperation suffering setbacks in Europe and North America, East Asian regional cooperation has once again attracted global attention.

Europe has long led the trend for regional cooperation. The regional cooperation under the European Union framework is the earliest, fastest, largest, highest, and the most complete mechanism and system construction. However, it is currently experiencing a serious setback from Brexit.

But it is not just the United Kingdom where there has been upswing in anti-EU sentiment among the public. In fact, the European debt crisis exposed serious flaws in the EU's institutional mechanisms and the refugee crisis added fuel to parties opposing the EU.

The United States has long dominated multilateral mechanisms to meet its global strategic interests and lead global governance without distracting from regional frameworks. However, under the current administration, the US has begun to pay attention to bilateral agreements in an attempt to leverage and maintain its dominant position in the global governance system.

East Asia is therefore pursuing greater economic integration at a time when multilateralism is under threat and rapid changes and profound adjustments are happening in the global landscape.

The total economic output of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) has surpassed that of the US and the EU, and they are keen to take advantage of that to establish a "three-pole" global economic pattern. Especially in the context of the rising anti-globalization sentiment in many EU countries and North America, it is now time for East Asia to shoulder the historical responsibility of leading the global trend of regional cooperation.

East Asian regional cooperation started late, and it was not until the end of 1997 that the"10+3" cooperation framework was launched. Even as the "main channel" of East Asian cooperation, the progress of the 10+3 cooperation has not been smooth. Although there have been some cooperation achievements at the financial level, such as the establishment of the East Asian foreign exchange reserve, it has not been able to initiate free trade negotiations under this framework even till now. To make up for this deficiency, by the end of 2010, four pairs of"10+1" and a pair of"10+2" free trade zones were built. The main path and key step in promoting regional cooperation in East Asia is to combine these five groups of free trade partnerships into a unified Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (which would comprise ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India).

At the 10+3 Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Bangkok, China's State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi clearly stated that "efforts need to be made to conclude the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement negotiations by the end of the year". At the same time, the RCEP (Commerce) Ministerial Meeting held in Beijing made important progress. In terms of market access, more than two-thirds of bilateral market access negotiations have ended, and the remaining negotiations are actively moving forward. In terms of the negotiations on trade rules, the three contents of financial services, telecommunications services and professional services have been newly completed. The parties have reached agreement on more than 80 percent of the texts of the agreement, and the remaining rules negotiations are coming to an end. The ministers attending the meeting made it clear that the countries must work hard to achieve the goal of ending the negotiations within 2019, which was set at the RCEP Leaders' Meeting last year.

East Asia has created a world-famous economic growth miracle and is still the main driver of global economic growth. East Asian economic growth, with typical external demand or export-led characteristics, is more dependent on a stable international environment and an efficient governance system. In the context of the deeply troubled multilateral governance system, the growing proliferation of protectionism, and the undercurrent of anti-globalization sentiment, East Asia needs to improve the regional governance framework to create a free, open and stable regional trade and investment environment.

At present, the driving forces for regional cooperation in East Asia are many: China is striving to promote positive interaction between the Belt and Road Initiative and regional cooperation; ASEAN has established the ASEAN community in 2015 and it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, and its leading capacity for East Asian cooperation has been further enhanced. Third, East Asian cooperation has been characterized by being crisis-driven. Just as the 1997 financial crisis forged strong East Asian cooperation, the external pressure caused by the "America first" strategy of the US has once again become a strong driving force for East Asian internal cooperation. East Asia, which once created a miracle of economic growth, has the ability to create a miracle of regional cooperation.

The miracle of economic growth relies on a unique East Asian model. East Asian regional cooperation should also rely on its own methods, different from that of the EU and US. The "ASEAN Way" of seeking consensus through an approach that respects the cultural norms of Southeast Asia has played a pivotal role in enabling ASEAN to be at the forefront of East Asian cooperation and become the dominant force in East Asian cooperation. What is needed now, is for East Asia to actively explore how to carry forward the "ASEAN Way" and build the "East Asian Way" of regional cooperation when European and US way of regional cooperation have got into trouble.

The author is former vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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