Luis Enrique Ascui Jusuf Wanandi, senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia.

East Asian nations should respond to the prominent U.S. role in this region by building on existing economic ties and other common interests and developing a community, said Jusuf Wanandi, senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Such an East Asian community, Wanandi said Feb. 23 at the Asia Pacific Security Conference 2004 here, would be a constructive response to the influential U.S. role in the region.

“While recognizing the supremacy of the United States in the Asia Pacific and her active presence in East Asia, there are strong enough rationale and economic integration for the region to come together toward an East Asian Community,” said the Indonesian foreign affairs analyst during the day’s second panel discussion, “Strategic Trends in the Asia Pacific.”

For such a community to find purchase, Japan and China will need to normalize relations, much as Germany and France achieved in Europe, including a division of power, said Wanandi.

Ties with the United States also would have to be strengthened to win support from Washington for such an East Asian community.

“In reality, the East Asian community could be established only if it is compatible with U.S. supremacy,” Wanandi said. “The U.S. has been present in the region since World War II and has been an important pillar for peace, stability and economic well-being of the region.”

An East Asian community acting in concert with a powerful U.S. presence in the region will foster stability, he argued. “As such, the region could better overcome and solve its problems.”

The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, a think-tank affiliated with Singapore’s Nayang Technological University, and Asian Aerospace Pte. Ltd. jointly produced the conference. Defense News is the official media partner for the event.

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