East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Plus Three Joint Press Statements on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis

June 3, 2009
Japanese

Today (June 3 [Wed]), ASEAN Chair Thailand, with the consent of the leaders of relevant countries, issued joint press statements on the global economic and financial crisis. These joint press statements were issued in the name of EAS and the ASEAN Plus Three countries respectively.
After the postponement of the 4th East Asia Summit (EAS) and the 12th ASEAN Plus Three Summit that were to be held in Pattaya, Thailand in April 2009, an agreement was reached to hold the next summit in October 2009 in Thailand. However, the EAS and ASEAN Plus Three countries agreed that it was necessary to promptly send the message that they are making cooperative efforts to deal with the current crisis, which resulted in the issuance of these statements.
Japan hopes that the Asian countries will make cooperative efforts to quickly recover from the current global economic and financial crisis, and that they will strengthen growth potential from a mid-term standpoint. Japan also hopes that Asia makes contributions to the world economy as a center of growth open to the world. Considering these factors, Japan welcomes the issuance of these statements from Thailand.
Japan also supports the efforts being made by the Asian countries through a variety of measures including up to two trillion yen of official development assistance (ODA) announced by Prime Minister Taro Aso, as well as support for facilitating trade finance.

(END)