Arroyo cites Japan’s lead role in East Asia

By Ronron
June 24, 2007

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Sunday cited Japan’s lead role in East Asia in the coming years as she foresees the region to play a dominant role in the world economic and political affairs in the future.

A Palace statement said Arroyo issued the statement in her opening speech before 200 participants at the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2007 at the Shangri-la Hotel in Singapore.

“We would like to see Japan playing a lead role in contributing to integration in the region and maintaining and pursuing international peace and security as we try to forge the East Asia community,” Arroyo was quoted to have said, noting Japan’s role as the largest source of official development assistance (ODA) in the region.

According to the statement, Arroyo pointed out that Japan is already stepping up its game with China in facilitating peace on the Korean Peninsula, apparently referring to the issues of nuclear tests by North Korea and the World War II crimes of Japanese in South Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was not only vocal about said issues, he even visited Seoul last year.

Arroyo said the emergence of the East Asia Community is already inevitable and Japan will be joined in the lead role by China and India, which, she said, “have become true political and economic giants.”

The challenge for these countries now is “how the region will handle the next 20 to 40 years,” she said.

The Philippine leader conceded that “when we think ahead and ponder the next 40 years, we see increasing integration and prosperity, and at the same time, the likelihood of greater income disparity.”

“We see a more peaceful world, yet more countries with nuclear capability. We see a cleaner environment, yet in achieving that, we must first address the challenge of global warming,” she said.

Balancing these contradictions would therefore be the test in the region, Arroyo said.

With the leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which the Philippines chairs this year, Arroyo said the “vision of an East Asia Community, once unthinkable and believed unattainable in this lifetime, is gradually taking shape.”

She cited the declaration of an ASEAN Charter during the ASEAN Summit in Cebu last January as among the bold steps taken “to create a regional community by 2015.”

“I am bullish on Asia, what we have accomplished and what we will achieve in the next 20 years. Our time has come. Asia will be up to the task of leading our people and our region into a more dominant role in world economic and political affairs,” said Arroyo./DMS