ASEAN APPRECIATES IDEA OF FORMING EAST ASIA COMMUNITY

Hua Hin, Oct 25 (ANTARA) - ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said on Sunday the regional grouping appreciated the idea of forming an East Asia Community and Asia Pacific Community.

"We appreciate the idea and (ASEAN) leaders have been paying attention to it," he said after the conclusion of the 15th ASEAN Summit here.

Surin said the idea of forming such communities was aimed at addressing future global challenges.

The ASEAN secretary general said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had come up with the idea of forming an Asia Pacific Community to encourage Asia Pacific leaders to begin thinking of challenges facing the region.
The same was also true with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's idea of forming an East Asia Community, he said.

The idea would not be implemented now, in the next one year or two years but in the future, he said.

Separately, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who is also the ASEAN chair said ASEAN member states were paying attention to the idea.

But what ASEAN had to do now was to strengthen cooperation among its members as well as with dialog partners, he said.

As a matter of fact, ASEAN member states had managed to establish close cooperation with their dialog partners, he said.

Commenting on the ideas, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Asia Pacific countries should take maximum advantage of the existing forums to realize the ideas of forming the Asia Pacific Community. ***3***