Energy Cooperation and Emerging Regionalism in North-East Asia: Relative Impact on APEC and ASEM in Terms of Inter-Regionalism

It may be rather imperative for North-East Asia to reinforce the processes of energy cooperation and economic integration simultaneously if one takes full account of the development trajectory of the ECSC. The EU launched a common energy policy in 2007 as a means of pooling together the capabilities of member nations in order to cope with such complicated issues as energy market liberalization, deregulation, fortified market power of Russia in strategic mineral resources, the increased instability of the Middle East and the impact of energy policy on the environment. It may be also beneficial for China, Japan and Korea to put in place a supra-national institution that would plan, coordinate and implement a common energy policy by analyzing the past experience of the EU. Such a movement towards regionalism in North-East Asia may work as a catalyst for extending cooperation with the EU, thus increasing ASEM’s leverage compared to APEC via cumulative feedbacks between expanding markets and the process of technological innovation.