Dr Chin's commenced his lecture by questioning ASEAN's position in East Asia as there has been much mentioned about the centrality of ASEAN. He doubted that ASEAN has yet to self reflect and consequently make amendments to stay competitive with the rise of East Asia.

Dr Chin started by recalling the background to the East Asia Summit (EAS). A combination of factors has shaped the EAS and it has been indeed a very long process. The 1970s and 1980s saw the Koreans and Japanese trying to underpin the economic connectivity of the wider Asia region. However, the Cold War brought its own set of problems and it was only after the 1990s that someone like Malaysia's ex-premier, Dr Mahatir Mohammad, was able to openly and expansively discuss the East Asia grouping which was subsequently reincarnated into the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC). By 1992, despite some of the open reservations expressed by this type of community building, Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, stated that the concept of the EAEC needed to be embraced. It was also suggested that among other things, there needed to be an East Asian response to other mega-regional enterprises that were being conceived around the same time such as North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU). In 1994, the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) enforced a concerted process where the Asian side (of ASEM) was driven to think more cooperatively and engage in the ASEM Dialogue. By 1997, the ASEAN plus three (APT) had begun to meet on annually. The other major watershed was the 1997/98 East Asian economic crisis that triggered earnest East Asian responses to address the negative spillover effects of the existing economic connectivity. From 1998 to 2001, a series of measures were discussed which eventually culminated in the idea of the East Asia Summit (EAS) meeting. The exit of Dr Mahatir Mohammad as Malaysia's Prime Minister opened the doors for New Zealand and Australia (and India) to participate in the EAS.