Prime Minister Mori's Statement at the ASEAN+3 Summit Meeting in Singapore

November 24, 2000

1. Future of East Asia

"Three Principles for Enhancing Open Regional Cooperation in East Asia"

(1) Building partnership in the context of ASEAN+3

(2) Enhancing ASEAN+3 as a framework of open regional cooperation which complements and strengthens the global system

(3) Developing ASEAN+3 cooperation in a well-balanced manner in every field that is taken up in the "Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation," including political-security field (even if for the time being cooperation is in the economic field)

2. Enhancing cooperation in East Asia

(1) IT

1. Holding of "Joint Conference of Government Officials, Prominent Academics and Business Leaders for IT Cooperation in East Asia" in Japan in 2001
2. Dispatch of policy-dialogue missions on IT cooperation to implement "Japan's Comprehensive Co-operation Package to Address the International Digital Divide"
3. Development of IT engineers: "Asian Common Skill Standard Initiative for IT Engineer"

(2) Anti-piracy

1. Holding of "Asian Cooperation Conference on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships" in Tokyo in 2001
2. Assisting the holding of anti-piracy workshop in Thailand in March 2001
3. Strengthening economic cooperation for the eradication of poverty

(3) Chiang Mai Initiative

1. Starting bilateral negotiations based on the principle just agreed upon for the implementation of Chiang Mai Initiative
2. Financial cooperation to ASEAN Secretariat for the strengthening of regional financial cooperation

(4) Holding of the "Millennium Forum - Voice of Asia" in Okinawa in February 2001

(5) Political and security area

- Emphasizing the importance of a stable Korean Peninsula and Indonesia for the stability of entire Asia

3. Cooperation for ASEAN integration

- Mekong River Basin Development:
Dispatch of a government mission for coordinating and considering possible assistance