ASEAN-U?

On Saturday, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations met with China, Japan, S. Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand to discuss, among other things, the possibility of forming an EU-style community and shared currency. Leaders of the countries are pushing for the East Asian community to take a leading role as they rebound from the global economic crisis. As it stands, ASEAN leaders are discussing plans to form a political and economic union by 2015. However, territorial and human rights issues have tainted the summit meeting.

An article in the Wall Street Journal today discussed the matter in terms of competing visions for the East Asian union. On the one hand China believes in stronger ties with trading partners in S.E. Asia, while Japan wishes to extend an offer to the U.S. to participate in the trade group, although the extent this participation is yet to be defined. This is an interesting development, given that part of the expectation from the Asian union is a lessened dependence on the U.S.
China is not interested in including democratic nations such as the U.S., Australia, India and New Zealand, for obvious reasons.

At this point in time, it doesn't seem to me that such a union is feasible. For one, I think the political institutions in many of these countries are too different or in the case of Myanmar, too extreme to enter into a union. Territorial disputes may be settled in the next ten years, but without clear regulation human rights will remain an issue. I think the EU worked because all of the participating nations have defined, shred goals for Europe as a whole. I am not sure that Southeast Asia has this unity. Furthermore, I think that many of the countries in S.E. Asia, with perhaps the exception of Japan, are underestimating the necessity of U.S. involvement. I believe that allegiance with the U.S. is paramount to international security and the Southeast Asian nations would be folly to ignore this.