Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the ASEAN as a regional grouping, the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) added new dimensions to the process of intra-regional ASEAN integration and laid special emphasis on fast-tracking the process of ASEAN Plus Three (APT- including Japan, China and South Korea) integration. As part of their continued effort towards greater ASEAN integration, the member states agreed to restructure the ASEAN by adopting an ASEAN Charter to make it powerful enough to address challenges in the future and steer the region towards "one caring and sharing community."

The process of restructuring the ASEAN and the formation of an ASEAN Charter reflects a three-pronged and graded approach by the ASEAN member countries. At the first level, a comprehensive draft charter covering large number of issues has been prepared by the Eminent Persons' Group (EPG), as mandated by the Kuala Lumpur Summit of December 2005. However, many important issues could not be incorporated in the Charter by the EPG given a lack of consensus among the member states. The 40th AMM took the initiative to break the logjam over some of the contentious issues such as the setting up of an ASEAN Human Rights Commission and incorporating the issues of migrant workers, sustainable development and climate change within the ASEAN Charter.

However, issues relating to the formation of a dispute settlement body, replacement of consensus by 'decision by a voting' and punishment mechanism for violators of the ASEAN norms could not be resolved even at the ministerial level. Therefore, these issues have been left for the leaders to decide during the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Singapore on 20 November 2007. To quote Singapore's Foreign Minister, George Yeo, "…It is for the leaders, in their own wisdom and depending on their own personal relationship, to work out methods to resolve the differences."

Another important initiative taken during the 40th AMM is to fast-track the free-trade negotiations among the APT members, to facilitate greater economic integration and the speedy fruition of an East Asian Community. Arroyo in her speech clearly highlighted that "an East Asia community will strengthen our economy, security and prosperity," and spelt out the necessity of forging individual free-trade agreements with other APT members, if ASEAN truly wanted to be an expanded union. The Chairman's press statement at the 8th APT Foreign Ministers' Meeting clearly highlights the emphasis given to the formation of an East Asian FTA (EAFTA including APT members) and the proposal by South Korea to conduct an in-depth sector-by-sector analysis of the EAFTA.

So far, so good. The problem arises when the Chairman's statement is compared with the statement of the participating Foreign Ministers from the East Asian Summit and with the statement of India's Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukharjee, who himself admitted that "the primary focus related to regional cooperation in East Asia." Moreover, the only point of discussion at the Summit was the situation in Afghanistan, in particular the abduction of South Korean citizens in Afghanistan. Such a trend points towards a growing Chinese influence in the ASEAN discourses on pan-East Asian integration. The primary Chinese objectives are to de-link the process of East Asian community formation from the East Asian Summit framework and minimise the combined Indo-Japanese-Australian influence in the ASEAN-led East Asian Community. Such a strategy further reflects China's growing wariness over the emerging Australia-India-Japan-USA quadrilateral initiative, set in motion last year. The Singapore Summit in November 2007 might be able to further clarify some of the trends inherent in this landmark Ministerial meeting.

Given such a scenario, three set of policy options best suit India's interest in the ASEAN-led East Asian deliberations- sustained engagement, multilateral activism and agenda-implementation. First, it should be consistent in its engagement with both the ASEAN and the East Asian Community. The developments of the last six months indicate substantial progress in the level of India's engagement both with the ASEAN countries as well as China and Japan. India has been able to develop strategic partnership with Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam during the last two months and various substantial issues of disagreement have been removed through dialogue on the ASEAN-India FTA.

Next, India should continue to support the strengthening of ASEAN leadership and facilitation of multilateral initiatives in the region. Finally, implementation holds the key to India's sustained engagement both at the ASEAN level as well as at the East Asian Community level. India should continue delivering on its promises and take proactive efforts in providing assistance to the ASEAN region. Despite demand for assistance from Indonesia and Singapore regarding maritime security in the Malacca Strait and India's blanket assurance on "any type of help," nothing concrete has come up so far. Greater economic engagement and the restoration of pan-East Asian cultural linkages as embodied in the revival of Nalanda University and which is slated for discussion in the Singapore Summit, can have the potential of easing India's integration with the ASEAN region and with the other countries in East Asia.