The thirteenth Asian Statesmen’s Forum was held on August 30, 2014 in Malacca, Malaysia. This year, 3 topics titled as the following: “Security in East Asia”, “Overcoming the middle-income trap” and “ASEAN-Japan Cooperation” were discussed.

As the host country of this forum, several Malaysian statesmen attended the meeting, in addition, members from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand were at the conference. From Japan, Mr. Yoshimasa Hayashi, the incumbent Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, and other statesmen were listed. Also, some GRIPS faculties attended the conference.

Participants had an active exchange of opinions on their respective country’s political situation as well as international relations and also had dialogues on economic prospects in ASEAN and Japan. The conference finished in a lively discussion and it contributed to give the attendees a great opportunity to exchange different perspectives.