6th East Asia Summit opens in Bali, Indonesia

The 6th East Asia Summit ( EAS)kicked off here Saturday, gathering leaders from 10 ASEAN countries, the Dialogue Partners and the United Nations. The New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are represented by their respective Foreign Ministers. The EAS will discuss on broad and strategic issues of common concern at the regional and international levels, and ways to enhance and strengthen the cooperation within five priority areas of the EAS, namely finance, energy, education, communicable diseases, and disaster management. At the summit, the leaders are expected to adopt two declarations as the outcome documents of 6th East Asia Summit, namely, the Declaration of the EAS on the Principles for Mutually Beneficial Relations, and Declaration of the 6th East Asia Summit on ASEAN Connectivity.