ASEAN-EAS Economic Cooperation refers to the cooperation among the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their eight external partners, namely Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.

EAS plays a significant role in community building in the region and forms an integral part of the evolving regional architecture. ASEAN’s role as the driving force in the EAS plays a critical role in working with other EAS Participating counties. The EMM has achieved significant consensus on the commitments to further strengthen regional economic integration in the East Asia region and continue to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices while recognising the role of legitimate trade defense instruments. 

The combined nominal GDP of EAS participating countries stood at USD 51.6 trillion in 2019, growing by 4.1 per cent year-on-year in real terms. The Ministers also noted that, based on preliminary ASEAN data, ASEAN merchandise trade with non-ASEAN EAS reached USD 1.3 trillion in 2019 while Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows from non-ASEAN EAS participating countries to ASEAN was recorded at USD 61.2 billion, representing 38.1 per cent of ASEAN’s total FDI inflows.