The 7th East Asia Summit adopted the Phnom Penh Declaration here Tuesday, pledging to help narrow development gap among ASEAN member states so as to achieve the ASEAN Community by the end of 2015.
The declaration called for more development aid to less developed nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nation ( ASEAN) to realize common development.
The declaration was formulated on the basis of China’s initiative, which advocates balanced, inclusive and sustainable development, boosting policy coordination and expanding cooperation in finance, energy, education, disaster management, public health and interconnection.
The declaration expressed support for ASEAN’s leading role in the East Asia Summit and related regional cooperative mechanism.
It also encouraged developing members of East Asia Summit to adjust economic structure and choose the development path in line with the national conditions of their own.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the annual summit along with leaders from ten ASEAN member states as well as Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States in Phnom Penh.
Xinhua