Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Until the last decade of the twentieth century, East Asian regionalism was a process determined by external factors. As a result, regional initiatives were strongly correlated with global processes, being a response of East Asian countries to global challenges. Moreover, the process of regionalism covered a limited number of countries—the six member states of ASEAN. A number of changes and events including membership of the less developed countries of the Indochina Peninsula in the ASEAN’s structure, the Asian financial crisis, SARS and bird flu epidemics, China’s accession to the WTO, and the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004 (the Indian Ocean) and that of March 2011 (the coast of Honshu) had a major impact on the way in which East Asian leaders perceived the process of regionalism. East Asia’s current regional relations also result from the EU’s perception of East Asia as an autonomous region in relation to the Pacific as well as US policies (favouring broader trans-Pacific cooperation).