On the morning of October 25, 2009, the 4th East Asia Summit (EAS) was held in Hua Hin, a coastal city of Thailand. The leaders of ten ASEAN countries and six ASEAN dialogue partners: China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India, will have discussions on the measures aiming at strengthening regional cooperation and capacity building so as to better tackle the challenges facing the region.

According to the statement announced before the EAS, in the face of the challenges of the global financial and economic crisis, the leaders attending the summit would review the implementation of measures in the Joint Press Statement of the EAS on the Global Economic and Financial Crisis announced by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in June this year as authorized by the leaders of ASEAN countries, China, Japan and ROK (10+3) and the leaders of EAS, and discuss the suggestions and related conclusions proposed in the EAS workshop on Trade Finance held in Thailand last month.

According to the statement, as natural disasters take place more frequently and severely, the leaders would discuss how to strengthen regional cooperation in a more effective way to manage disasters. The summit would also issue Cha-am Hua Hin Statement on East Asia Summit (EAS) Disaster Management.

According to the statement, Thailand, as the chairman of the ASEAN meetings, would propose discussions on how to enhance regional connections at the summit.

The 4th EAS was a part of the 15th ASEAN Summit and a series of summit meetings between ASEAN and its dialogue partners from October 23 to 25.