Thanks Henry

Your article was well balanced between descibing the background to the Summit and discussing the current and future issues that it faces.

I take it China would not have agreed to attend if Taiwan did. I find it odd nevertheless that there was no mention of the "T word" given that the US-Taiwan vs China face off is the second most pressing (after N Korea) strategic issue in the region. If the issue didn't come up because of Taiwan's and the US' exclusion than this is still a major gap in the discussions of a truly regional summit.

The summit is also good news for Malaysia which under Mahathir may have flexed its (relatively) newly independent identiity by some unnecessarily plain speaking diplomacy (only matched by our own high stepping former Labor PM Keating - a true windfall for the Liberal Party!).

Hopefully Malaysia can continue to act as a non-aligned meeting place in the region.

Henry,

I feel you are correct in saying that East Asian countries, principally South East Asian countries are trying to act as intermediaries between larger, more mature economies and other countries. In Singapore, in this regard, the business sector use the word "hub" in every second sentence.

Having been party to some of the discusions at the WTO in Hong Kong last week, it was evident that the more powerful countries really have no need to comprise, because these countries hold so manner court cards in their hands. Herein, the Anglo-Western countries can readily deal directly with China and India, without involving Singapore or Malaysia trying to mimic Singapore.

In the above frame, I ask whether it might not be wiser for the minor Asian countries to go with APEC, where they can be the "tails of oxen" rather than "the heads of chickens": Thus, putting more effort into APEC, rather than developing the Asia Summit route

Plantagenet and Oliver,

Hi. Thanks for your comments. I will try to reply some of the points raised by both of you. Soon, I hope. You have raised valid views and issues which I would like to discuss further, within the word limit imposed here.

Thanks again for the inputs.