Keynote Proposal 3

• Co-founder, Member, Board of Trustees, and Senior Fellow
  Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta

Two strategic trends are developing in East Asia that will define future developments in the region: US strategic presence and East Asian Community building. US strategic dominance has been here for the last 60 years, while the East Asian Community has just started to be developed, first in the economic field, and gradually in the political security field. The two strategic trends should complement each other and should not become confrontational. For that to happen the US should see that the idea is not against her, but is meant to keep peace and development in the region with the involvement of the US. It will have three strategic objectives: (a) how to incorporate a rising big power, China, into the region and made her a status quo power; (b) how to assist the normalization between China and Japan; and (c) how to assist in preventing a confrontation between China and the US in the longer term, if China on her own right will become a great power. As the closest and most important US ally in the region, Japan has to play a pivotal role in making it possible for the US to accept the development of an East Asian Community in the future. ASEAN also could help in building the Community, since either China or Japan are still hampered by history to take the lead.