The Third East Asia Forum was held in Beijing, China on 31 October, 2005. The meeting was attended by nearly 100 government officials, scholars and business leaders from ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea and ASEAN Secretariat. Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan attended the Opening Ceremony and delivered a keynote speech.
The delegates exchanged views on the future development, goal, and approach, policies and existing problems of East Asia cooperation, and affirmed that East Asia economic integration has become an inevitable tendency and countries concerned should unswervingly push forward the East Asia community building. Participants agreed the ASEAN+3 Progress, with the expansion and deepening of exchanges and cooperation in various fields, has attained great success and played a key role in East Asia cooperation. They proposed that East Asia countries should fully exploit the existing channels and mechanisms, pay great attention to participation of various circles of society and push the cooperation of East Asia forward to a new stage of comprehensive development. The delegates emphasized that East Asia should uphold open regionalism and inclusiveness to strengthen contact and communication with countries outside this region, so as to achieve a win-win results. It was agreed that East Asia summit and other mechanisms such as “10+3" should be mutually complementary and make joint contributions to East Asia cooperation and the development of the world.
Set up in 2003, East Asia Forum is one of the 17 important cooperative measures under the framework of ASEAN plus Three, aiming at providing a platform of dialogue and cooperation for governments, businesses and academia and offering wisdom for East Asia cooperation.