ASEAN leaders will continue to discuss this cooperative mechanism from now till October.
ASEAN leaders at the 43rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and related conferences held in Hanoi in July, reached a consensus on the new structure of the region named the expanded East Asia region including the participation of Russia and the US.
The new structure ended the debate within ASEAN over the past two years. ASEAN has defined its development path, to promote relations with major regional and international counterparts in order to improve the status and the impact of ASEAN in the international arena.
The involvement of two major countries in regional cooperation is a good sign, which proves the attraction of ASEAN and East Asia.
However, there was a worry that the involvement might change EAS cooperation and weaken the role of ASEAN within the framework.
The 8th East Asia Forum in Vietnam solved the problem in August when leaders agreed on measures to maintain the central role of ASEAN.
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