Chairman's Statement of the 3rd East Asia Summit

The Third East Asia Summit (EAS) chaired by H.E Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, was held on 21 November 2007 in Singapore. The Heads of State/Government of ASEAN, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand, and the Foreign Minister of Australia, representing his Prime Minister, had a productive exchange of views on regional and international issues, as well as on the growing areas of cooperation within the EAS framework.

REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development

We devoted a session to discuss "Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development", which are pressing and inter-related global concerns.

We endorsed Singapore's proposal to convene an EAS Conference on Liveable Cities in June 2008 to address the inter-related issues of urbanisation, climate change, energy, and the environment.

We expressed satisfaction with the follow-up to the Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security that we had signed at our 2nd Summit in Cebu. We commended the work done by the EAS Energy Ministers at their inaugural meeting in Singapore on 22 August 2007, supported by the EAS Energy Cooperation Task Force; and tasked them to continue their good work. We appreciated, in particular, the EAS Energy Ministers' recommendations on future areas of cooperation, including:

a. Formulating, on a voluntary basis, energy efficiency goals and action plans, with a view to presenting the first goals and action plans in 2009, followed by monitoring of progress towards each countries' own energy efficiency goals;

b. Enhancing cooperation on biofuels in the region, including formulating principles for biofuels, and supporting cooperation in developing reference benchmarks for biofuels; and

c. Promoting energy market integration.

Recognising that United Nations' Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) initiative was an important means of fostering dialogue among faiths, cultures and communities; we agreed that the implementation of its recommendations would improve relations and understanding between communities in East Asia and elsewhere. We further welcomed the intention of a number of East Asian governments to collaborate on AOC-related projects, in areas such as youth exchanges, education and media training, and instructed our officials and the ASEAN Secretariat to follow up on these.

We welcomed the positive developments in India's Nalanda University initiative, including the inaugural meeting of the Nalanda Mentor Group chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen in Singapore in July 2007 and Japan’s offer to host its 2nd meeting as well as an associated Forum on Intercultural, Inter-societal and Interfaith dialogue next month. The revival of Nalanda University would create a centre for cultural exchange and inter-religious study and understanding in the region.

We noted with satisfaction, the progress of youth exchange in East Asia, including the steady implementation of the “Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths” (JENESYS) Programme.