New Delhi: South Asian countries including Myanmar and their regional partners met at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
At the first-ever East Asia Summit, a Kuala Lumpur declaration was adopted which underlined that the summit, to be held annually, was set up as a forum "for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues of common interest and concern with the aim of promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia."
The declaration was signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and heads of government of the ASEAN ten - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and China, Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia.
Realising that Asia is fuelling the world economic growth, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the leaders of 15 other countries at the first East Asia Summit agreed to draw up a roadmap for closer cooperation in the region in security, financial and cultural areas.
The countries also agreed to undertake necessary follow-up action through existing ASEAN mechanisms in consultation with World Bank, FAO, ADB and other world bodies.
Another highlight of the meet was a rare handshake between the leaders of
Japan and China.
The gesture, after months of feuding between Asia's two biggest economies over their wartime past, came after 16 leaders signed a declaration calling for annual talks on issues that also included health scares such as bird flu and energy security.
Meanwhile, as the summit got underway, police broke up a protest against Myanmar being included in the meet.
Malaysian politicians argued that ASEAN has been soft on Myanmar's human rights record, by including the country in the 10-member team.
The next East Asia meeting will be held in Cebu in the Philippines in December 2006.
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