The East Asia summit (EAS) is one of the premier forums for Indo-Pacific with regards to strategic dialogue and is a leaders-led forum with informality built into it.  EAS is generally held just after the second ASEAN summit of the year when the ASEAN also meets its dialogue partners, including India. Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc was the chair of this year’s EAS (15th) which was held on November 14.

The summit in the virtual format loses the informality which is its hallmark. Leaders made prepared statements with no scope of informal chatting. As the EAS this year coincided with Diwali, PM had domestic commitments which kept him away and hence India was represented by the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Though China remains the main threat in the region, this is rarely discussed openly in deference to ASEAN views. The promise held out at the September EAS Foreign Ministers meeting that “the free-flowing constructive dialogue on strategic issues amongst Leaders at the EAS in order to reinforce strategic trust and to address common challenges would strengthen EAS” was lost.

For the 15th Anniversary of EAS, the Hanoi Declaration was signed, and it had a mere 12 paragraphs. This is because China, backed by Russia, introduced several ideas at the drafting stage which queered the pitch. To remove these, other substantive ideas were dropped. That led to an innocuous document. This was similar to the 10th Anniversary Kuala Lumpur Declaration of 2015 and does not build on the progress made by the EAS on a variety of functional issues. If this is the level of achievement under Vietnam as the Chair in EAS, then even less can be expected when Brunie succeeds Vietnam in the role of Chair.

East Asia Summit covers security, economy, and functional aspects, which are reflected in the Chairman’s Statement which is actually a summary and not a negotiated document. India is looking forward to EAS to finalize on the India-ASEAN FTA to open up trade linkages in East Asia. Even as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed the world’s biggest trade deal in the format of an FTA, India has reaffirmed its faith in the EAS, which many believe can trigger a trade war.

The author is a  student member of Amity center of Happiness.