ASEAN plus 3 cooperation

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the 14th Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus Three in the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Friday. The ASEAN Plus Three (APT) refers to a regional process involving the ten ASEAN countries and three Northeast Asian countries including China, Japan, and South Korea. As suggested by its name, this emerging regional process is driven by the ASEAN, which was founded in 1967. APT meetings take place around the annual ASEAN meetings, where leaders of ASEAN members, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, will meet with their counterparts from the three countries. The first APT summit was held in Kuala Lumpur in December 1997, coming at a very important time when all countries in the region were facing an economic setback. The financial crisis was regarded as having provided the impetus for this summit. Nowadays, the APT has developed into one of the most important mechanisms aiming at strengthening and deepening East Asia cooperation at various levels and in various areas, particularly in economic, social and political areas. There are 65 mechanisms, including 1 summit, 17 ministerial, 23 Senior Officials, 1 Directors General, 17 technical level meetings and 6 other track meetings, coordinating APT cooperation. Along with the implementation of APT, the ASEAN also set up dialogue with China, Japan and South Korea respectively. Also on Friday, Premier Wen will attend the 14th ASEAN Plus One summit. Within the framework of ASEAN plus one, great emphasis has been put on cooperation in the sectors of agriculture and the information and communication industry, human resources development, mutual investment and the development of the Mekong River Basin.