The East Asia Summit is a nominally annual meeting of national leaders from the East Asian region and adjoining countries. The Fifth East Asia Summit was chaired by Vietnam on 30 October 2010. The participants issued a Chairman's Statement called the Hanoi Declaration commemorating the fifth anniversary of the EAS and summarizing the summit's discussion.
Participants
The 16 countries participating at the head-of-government/head-of-state level were: Attending the Summit also this year were representatives from the United States and Russia The United States and Russia attended the 2010 EAS as ‘Guests of the Host’ with formal entry at the head-of-government/head-of-state level scheduled for 2011. The status of potential future members for the EAS was discussed in the Chairman's Statement of the 16thASEAN Summit in these terms:
43. We recognized and supported the mutually reinforcing roles of the ASEAN+3 process, the East Asia Summit, and such regional forums as the ASEAN Regional Forum, to promote the East Asian cooperation and dialogue towards the building of a community in East Asia. In this connection, we encouraged Russia and the US to deepen their engagement in an evolving regional architecture, including the possibility of their involvement with the EAS through appropriate modalities, taking into account the Leaders-led, open and inclusive nature of the EAS.
Agenda
The leaders exchanged views on regional and international issues and on the future cooperation in EAS.
East Asia Joint Research Fund
Japan has proposed a joint fund between the summit members to support science and technology.
Enhancing regional financial cooperation and coordination
A draft of the Chairman's statement called for the members to enhance regional financial cooperation and coordination in the face of the current fragile world economic recovery, but did not provide details of what this would involve.
Education
China has made reference to deepening educational exchanges through the Summit.
Issues identified by India
India identified the following issues for the summit: