RF, USA to officially join EAC at ASEAN summit in Hanoi.

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21/10 Tass 121

HANOI, October 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and the United States will be
officially invited to join the activity of the East Asian Community (EAC)
at the 17th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
due to be held in Hanoi late in October, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign
Minister Dao Viet Trung told journalists on Wednesday informing them on
the pace of preparations for the 17th summit of ASEAN heads of state and
government due to be held on October 28-30.
According to Dao Viet Trung, ASEAN countries believe that Russia's and
the USA's joining the EAC activity will give this structure great
possibilities to solve regional and global problems. At the same time, the
EAC expansion at the expense of new participants will in no way diminish
the role of ASEAN in it as a forming structure, the diplomat stressed. The
formal decision to include Russia and the United States in the East Asian
Community beginning with 2011 will be made public on the results of the
17th ASEAN summit, the Vietnamese deputy foreign minister said.
The first EAC summit was held in Malaysia in 2005. Sixteen countries -
- 10 ASEAN members, as will as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia
and New Zealand became its founders. The chief aim of the activity of this
Pan-Asia forum is to strengthen peace, stability and economic prosperity
of Eastern Asia.
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