Photo taken on April 14, 2020 shows a scene of Vietnamese officials in the country's capital city of Hanoi attending the Special ASEAN Summit on COVID-19 held in videoconferencing format.Photo:Xinhua

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, together with leaders of South Korea and Japan, joined the special ASEAN Plus Three (APT) summit on the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday via video link, sharing experiences in fighting the pandemic. 

Leaders of the Asian countries called for solidarity in addressing the unprecedented public health crisis, and urged a collective response and enhanced regional cooperation mechanism amid the global pandemic. 

As each other's close neighbors, APT countries gained valuable experience in jointly tackling crises and have put in place mechanisms for enhancing emergency preparedness, Li said, noting that countries must act with greater synergy and common purpose while being determined to work together in closer coordination and cooperation, the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. 

Leaders attending the special summit came up with a joint declaration emphasizing a coherent, multi-sector and whole-community approach to ensure a timely and effective response to the pandemic. 

South Korea and China are considered the countries that had taken aggressive and decisive measures to contain the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) and they have come up with a joint mechanism since March 13 for sharing information and experience. 

The mechanism involves personnel from each country's departments of public health, education, customs, immigration and civil aviation. Conferences within the mechanism have been held to meet the needs of epidemic prevention and control work.

The cross-border COVID-19 prevention model was proven to be effective as Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming confirmed on March 23 that there had been no more infections among Chinese nationals coming to South Korea or South Koreans coming to China. 

Chinese analysts consider such mechanism very important and could be promoted to more APT countries, especially as some of them have been facing growing pressure from imported infections. 

Tang Zhimin, director of China ASEAN studies at Thailand's Panyapiwat Institute of Management, noted China was the first country to hold joint meetings with ASEAN countries to fight the COVID-19.

As early as in February 20, China and ASEAN communicated, via a special ASEAN-China foreign ministers' meeting, to strengthen cooperation in disease response, ensure medical supplies, and share information on epidemic control, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. 

Tang noted that Tuesday's meeting provided insights on the post-epidemic era, including regional cooperation on restoring the supply chain which needs to be further integrated. "It is of great significance to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 on the regional economy," he said.

It's critical for APT countries to enhance collaboration in handling both the public health emergencies and the supply chain to fend off risks of the pandemic, given the dim prospects of the situation in Europe and the US. 

The rise of imported infections is one of the most pressing challenges that East Asia and ASEAN members are confronted with. 

On Monday, China reported 89 new coronavirus infections, 86 of which were imported. Singapore also saw a surge in imported infections in late March. In the Philippines, the first 111 confirmed patients recorded from January 30 to March 14 all had overseas travel histories. Early infections reported in Malaysia were mainly imported, until local cluster infections emerged in March, media reports said. 

As of press time, the total number of reported cases in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore were 4,932, 4,817 and 2,918, respectively. 

"Any country's prevention and control measures can be brought into full play only when its neighboring countries are aware of them and make cooperative arrangements," Dong Xiangrong, a professor at the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

And ASEAN is in greater need of such a mechanism, or cooperative model, she said, citing examples of Indonesia, a country with a large and dense population, and Cambodia and Myanmar, which are suffering from sluggish economies and fragile healthcare systems.

In terms of the economy, analysts noted that China, Japan and South Korea have a complete industrial chain while APT countries are expected to strengthen regional supply chains, which help the region collectively prepare for the pandemic and resist external risks. 

"It's important for APT nations, as export-driven regional economies, to drive up regional demand and secure the supply," Zhang Yunling, a research fellow at CASS, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Sluggish demand from the US and European markets means fewer orders for APT countries, which makes collaboration within the region more important, including boosting regional consumption, resuming production and setting up a joint fund to deal with emergencies, Zhang said. 

Also, to ensure the flow of people and cargo in a safe environment amid the COVID-19, APT countries should enhance a COVID-19-relevant information-sharing mechanism and could come up with multinationally recognized health cards, which permit people to travel in the region while preventing imported cases, Zhang said. 

The joint declaration issued after the special summit reaffirmed the member states' commitment to take collective action and coordinated policies not only in public health sectors, but also in the economic field. 

The participants said they are committed to keeping ASEAN's markets open for trade and investment, and enhancing cooperation among the bloc's members as well as its external partners with a view to ensure food security. 

This is a response to some countries' protectionist measures in food supplies. Vietnam suspended exporting rice starting March 24 to ensure national food security. Cambodia started banning the export of white rice and paddy rice on April 5. 

If the trend continues, it would inevitably create a negative impact on the supply of food, goods and materials across the region, said Su Hao, founding director of the Center for Strategic and Peace Studies at the China Foreign Affairs University. 

A coordinated arrangement will stabilize relevant supply chains, and avoid further impacting regional markets, Su told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The pandemic is shocking global trade and industrial chains. But it does not necessarily mean that previous supply chains, shaped by globalization, will be shattered, experts noted. 

Dong of CASS explained that parts of an electronic device may come from dozens of countries or regions. Is it possible to establish an absolutely complete manufacturing system within any country today? "Impossible," she argued, "especially for some small and medium-sized countries."

Some industries, which are considered crucial to countries' security or national strategy, might see de-globalization, but the already-shaped industrial division across the world will continue, Dong said. 

"That being said, economic cooperation among East Asian countries and ASEAN will only be strengthened in the future," Dong said, noting the way of collaboration will be different from the pre-COVID-19 era, but this remains to be observed.

Zhao Yipu contributed to the story.
Newspaper headline: ASEAN, East Asia up collective response