The Ministers welcomed the East Asia Summit as a forum to promote peace, stability and economic prosperity in East Asia through dialogue on strategic, political and economic issues. They recognized that the Summit could significantly contribute to establishing an East Asian community. Over time, the focus shifted from whether the Summit had a role in community building to what its specific role was and if it was secondary to the ASEAN Plus Three framework. By 2006, some suggested the community would arise through a two-phase process with ASEAN Plus Three first and then the East Asia Summit. The China-India joint declaration also linked the Summit to the East Asian Community process. The concentric circle model of the community process, with ASEAN at the center, ASEAN Plus

1. The Ministers welcomed the convening of the East
Asia Summit as a forum for dialogue on broad
strategic, political and economic issues of common
interest with the aim of promoting peace, stability
and economic prosperity in East Asia. In this
respect, they recognized that the East Asia Summit
could make a significant contribution to the
achievement of the long-term goal of establishing an
East Asian community.It appeared that over time
following the first EAS the focus was less on
whether the EAS has a role in community building
than on what the role was and whether it was
secondary to ASEAN Plus Three. By mid-2006 the
Chinese news site Xinhua Net suggested the
community would arise through a two-phase process
with ASEAN Plus. Three as the first phase and the
EAS as the second phaseThe China-India joint
declaration of 21 November 2006 linked, at
paragraph 43, the EAS with the East Asian
Community processThe concentric circle model of
the community process with ASEAN at the centre,
ASEAN Plus Three at the next band and the East
Asia Summit at the outer band is supported by the
Second Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation
Building on the Foundations of ASEAN Plus Three
Cooperation