Towards an East Asian community

SEOUL: When the leaders of 13 East Asian nations agreed at a meeting in Laos earlier this week to hold the first East Asian summit in Kuala Lumpur next year, they set in motion a historic process aimed at creating an East Asian version of the European Union. 

Only several years ago, the concept of an East Asian Community was something unthinkable. But an array of factors, including the common experience of the 1997-98 financial crisis and the deepening globalisation trend, changed East Asian thinking on regional integration.