HUA HIN, Thailand: The 4th East Asia Summit (EAS) opened Sunday, where ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand met to discuss regional cooperation topics.

Asian leaders join hands during a group photo session at the 4th East Asian Summit part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit meetings, held in the southern beach resort of Cha-am October 25, 2009. The leaders are (L-R) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Thai Prime Minsister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. [Agencies]

According to the official summit agenda, the leaders' discussion during the meeting will focus on the direction of future regional cooperation and capacity building measures to prepare for various global challenges that affect the region.

A possible outcome of the EAS is the Cha-am Hua Hin Statement on EAS Disaster Management, which was scheduled to be issued by the leaders after the meeting.

The statement concerning EAS Disaster Management identifies various measures that the 16 countries attending the East Asia Summit will take to address threats posed by natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent and more severe, as evident by the recent catastrophes in the wake of tropical storms Ketsana and Parma and the earthquakes in Indonesia, according to the summit's agenda.

Such measures include the enhancement of each country's disaster management capacity.

Aside from the disaster management, the leaders will also follow up on the implementation of the Joint Press Statement of the EAS on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis, and discuss the recommendations of the EAS workshop on Trade Finance held in Thailand last month, and the result of the Feasibility Study on Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia.

The EAS was part of a series of summit level meetings related to the 15th ASEAN Summit, which was kicked off in October 23.  

Originally arranged to take place in December last year, the fourth EAS was postponed due to Thailand's political unrest. The Thai authorities later planned to host the summit in April this year, but anti-government protests again forced the cancellation of the meeting. The summit was later rescheduled for October 25 this year.