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May 4, 2008: ASEAN plus 3 finance ministers agree to expand and strengthen the Chiang Mai Initiative into a multilateral currency swap facility of at least $80 billion. June 3, 2008: The governing board of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) holds its inaugural meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. June 4, 2008: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unveils his vision for an Asia Pacific Community (APC) in a speech at the Asia Society in Sydney. July 1, 2008: Japan-Indonesia free trade agreement (FTA) enters into force. July 10-12, 2008: Six-Party Talks are held in Beijing after a nine-month hiatus. July 21, 2008: The 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting is held in Singapore. July 22, 2008: Foreign ministers from the 10 ASEAN countries along with South Korea, China, and Japan hold an ASEAN Plus 3 meeting in Singapore. They are later joined by the foreign ministers of Australia, New Zealand, and India for East Asian Summit (EAS) consultations. July 23, 2008: Foreign ministers from the US, China, South Korea, Japan, North Korea, and Russia meet informally on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) to discuss progress in the Six-Party Talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. July 24, 2008: The 15th ARF is held in Singapore, focusing on disaster relief, North Korea’s nuclear program, terrorism, the border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, and the food and energy crisis. Special Assessment: Asian Regionalism 136 April 2010 July 24, 2008: North Korea signs the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). July 29, 2008: Doha Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization in Geneva collapse when the US, China, and India fail to resolve differences over agricultural protection in developing countries. July 31, 2008: Japan-Brunei FTA enters into force. Aug. 28, 2008: Eighth annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Sept. 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, setting off a financial panic that froze global credit markets, crushed stock and bond prices, and spread quickly to the real economy. Oct. 1, 2008: China-New Zealand FTA enters into force. Oct. 8, 2008: Philippine Senate ratifies the Japan-Philippine FTA, originally signed in 2006. Oct. 23, 2008: China and Singapore sign an FTA. Oct. 24-25, 2008: Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit is held in Beijing. Oct. 29, 2008: US Federal Reserve announces temporary reciprocal currency arrangements of up to $30 billion with central banks of Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and Singapore. Nov. 14-15, 2008: Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) hold their first summit-level meeting in Washington, DC to address the global financial crisis. Leaders discuss financial reforms and pledge to refrain from trade protectionism and to revive Doha round. Nov. 21-22, 2008: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting held in Lima, Peru. Leaders reiterate G20 pledges to refrain from trade protectionism and resume work on the Doha Round, and to work to improve international financial regulations and reform the IMF and World Bank. Dec. 1, 2008: ASEAN-Japan FTA comes into force. Dec. 8-11, 2008: Six-Party Talks are held in Beijing. The parties fail to agree on a protocol to verify North Korea’s denuclearization. Dec. 11, 2008: Japan-Philippines FTA enters into force. Dec. 12, 2008: The central banks of Japan, China, and Korea announce additional currency swap lines, increasing the size of one of the Japan-Korea swaps from the equivalent of $3 billion to $20 billion, and creating an additional swap arrangement between China-Korea in local currency equivalent to about $30 billion. Special Assessment: Asian Regionalism 137 April 2010 Dec. 13, 2008: President Lee Myung-bak, Prime Minister Aso Taro, and Premier Wen Jiabao hold a trilateral summit in Dazaifu, Fukuoka, Japan – the first trilateral summit among the “Plus Three” countries to be held apart from ASEAN meetings. Dec. 15, 2008: ASEAN Charter enters into force. Dec. 25, 2008: Japan and Vietnam sign a bilateral FTA. Jan. 1, 2009: Singapore-China FTA enters into force. Feb. 16-22, 2009: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and China. Feb. 27, 2009: ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand sign an FTA. Feb. 27-March 1, 2009: The ASEAN summit is held in Hua Hin Thailand, after being postponed in December due to political demonstrations that closed Bangkok’s airports. March 5, 2009: Korea and Australia announce launch of formal negotiations for fTA. April 2, 2009: Second G20 Leaders’ Economic Summit held in London. April 28, 2009: China and Peru sign FTA. May 3, 2009: Finance ministers from ASEAN Plus 3 announce agreement on the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM), which will expand the currency-swap facility from $80 billion to $120 billion. They also commit to establishing a regional surveillance unit, although details are left unspecified. May 4-8, 2009: The US and the Philippines co-host the Voluntary Demonstration of Response (VDR) on Disaster Relief in the Philippines, with 20 ARF countries participating and 12 countries contributing civilian and military resources. May 26, 2009: Foreign ministers of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) announce plans to expand membership to include Australia on Asian side, and Russia on European side, for the next ASEM summit meeting scheduled for October 2010 in Brussels. May 29, 2009: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addresses Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and makes a revised case for his Asia Pacific community proposal. June 15, 2009: Ninth SCO summit is held in Yekaterinburg, Russia. June 16, 2009: The first Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) summit is held in Yekaterinburg, Russia. July 18-23, 2009: The 42nd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, Post-Ministerial Conferences, and Special Assessment: Asian Regionalism 138 April 2010 16th ARF meet in Phuket, Thailand. July 22, 2009: Secretary Clinton at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, signs ASEAN TAC, while declaring “The United States is back in Southeast Asia.” She also announces US plans to open a mission to ASEAN in Jakarta, with the US ambassador to ASEAN in residence. July 23, 2009: Secretary Clinton meets foreign ministers from the four Mekong riparian states (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam) on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit to discuss bilateral cooperation between the two river basins of the Mississippi and the Mekong. Aug. 6, 2009: India and Korea sign an FTA. Aug. 13, 2009: India and ASEAN sign a FTA after six years of negotiations. April 14, 2009: Japan and Peru launch negotiations for an FTA. Sept. 21, 2009: Prime Minister Hatoyama meets Chinese President Hu on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York, and broaches his idea of an East Asian Community, modeled on the European Union. Sept. 23, 2009: Secretary Clinton announces a change in the Obama administration’s Burma policy to engage the military junta while still maintaining economic sanctions. Sept. 24-25, 2009: Third G20 Economic Summit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Leaders announce that the G20 is now the “permanent council for international economic cooperation,” replacing the G8 as the premier economic forum. Oct. 1, 2009: Japan-Vietnam FTA enters into force Oct. 10, 2009: Second Trilateral Summit between Japan, Korea, and China, held in Beijing. Oct. 23, 2009: 15th ASEAN summit held in Hua Hin, Thailand. ASEAN leaders officially launch the new ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), with the aim of promoting regional cooperation on human rights and curbing human rights abuses. Oct. 24, 2009: Twelfth ASEAN Plus 3 summit held in Hua Hin, Thailand. Oct. 25, 2009: Fourth EAS meeting held in Hua Hin, Thailand. The summit had been rescheduled with change of venues several times due to the 2008-2009 Thai political crisis. Nov. 6-7, 2009: First Japan-Mekong Summit held in Tokyo, Japan. Prime Minister Hatoyama meets leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, and pledges to extend at least $5.6 billion in fresh assistance to the Mekong region over next three years. Special Assessment: Asian Regionalism 139 April 2010 Special Assessment: Asian Regionalism 140 April 2010 Nov. 14, 2009: President Obama announces in a speech in Tokyo that the US will negotiate a Trans-Pacific Economic Partnership, (TPP), with seven Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Nov. 14-15, 2009: APEC Leaders Meeting held in Singapore, with discussions on the theme of “Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region.” Dec. 3-5, 2009: Australia holds “Asia Pacific community conference,” a 1.5 track conference in Sydney to discuss Prime Minister Rudd’s proposals for creating an “Asia Pacific community.” Jan. 1, 2010: ASEAN-China FTA comes into effect. Jan. 1, 2010: ASEAN-India FTA comes into effect. Jan. 1, 2010: ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement comes into effect. Jan. 1, 2010: India-Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement enters into force. Jan. 12, 2010: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers major policy speech on “Regional Architecture in Asia: Principles and Priorities” at East-West Center, Honolulu Hawaii. January 20, 2010: China and Taiwan begin formal talks on a trade deal termed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). March 15-19, 2010: First round of TPP negotiations are held with trade officials from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, US, and Vietnam. March 24, 2010: Japan holds symposium on “Building the East Asian Community,” featuring presentations by 10 leading policy voices from the Asia-Pacific region, hosted by the Foreign Ministry’s affiliated think tank, the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA). March 24, 2010: The Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) agreement comes into effect. March 29, 2010: New Zealand and Hong Kong sign a closer economic partnership (CEP) agreement, Hong Kong’s first FTA aside from its FTA with mainland China.