Ex-Japanese PM calls for East Asian community

By Park Si-soo

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Yukio Wednesday called for the need to forge an East Asian community comprising Korea, Japan and China to improve the regional economy and security.

“To create an East Asian community is an inevitability of history” Hatoyama said in an international conference in Seoul. “People of each country have begun to move forward with the idea.” The 64-year-old was a vocal advocate of the community while in office.

The conference was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade under the theme “Toward a New Era of Peace and Common Prosperity in Northeast Asia” to commemorate the launch of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat. The secretariat, chaired by Korean diplomat Shin Bong-kil, opened last month to facilitate the three nations in their efforts to develop mutual cooperation.

“Korea, China and Japan will play a decisive role in creating the community,” he said. “We should make consistent efforts to make a solid framework in which involved parties live in stable economic cooperation and security.”

Hatoyama criticized incumbent Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his predecessor Naoto Kan for paying little attention to the proposed community.

Hatoyama served as Japanese prime minister between September 2009 and June 2010. In moving toward a more Asia-centered diplomatic landscape, Hatoyama while in office tried to make relations better with neighboring countries. He also tried to deepen economic ties with the East Asian region, pushing for a free trade zone in Asia by 2020.

In response, professor Ha Young-sun from Seoul National University said the first step toward the community is “preventing the United States and China from having a dominant position in Asia.”

Zhang Xiaoji, a senior research fellow from China’s Development Research Center, said the implementation of tariff-free trade between the three neighboring states will help the idea progress.