dynamism. The Chairman's Statement of the 3rd East Asia Summit Singapore, 21 November 2007 also states: 21. We stressed our conviction that the EAS should continue to help build a united and prosperous East Asia, with ASEAN as the driving force working in close partnership with other participants of the East Asia Summit. We reaffirmed that the East Asia Summit is an important component of the emerging regional architecture and would help build an East Asian community. It should play a complementary and mutually reinforcing role with other regional mechanisms, including the ASEAN dialogue process, the ASEAN Plus Three process, the ARF, and APEC in community building efforts. A first stage of a future community may be seen in the Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia (CEPEA) proposed by Japan for the members of the East Asia Summit. The reality appears, however, that movement towards such a relationship is a long way off. Lee Kuan Yew has compared the relationship between South-East Asia and India with that of the European Community and Turkey, and has suggested that a free-trade area involving South-East Asia and India is 30 to 50 years away. Japanese proposals in 2009 The concept of the community, if not the details, was promoted during the 2009 Japanese general election campaign. After the change of government in Japan the details of what Japan was proposing was unclear. The Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in early October 2009 indicated that what was proposed was a Community based on the members of the East Asia Summit focusing on political links with a common currency "very far off in the future". The Japanese proposal is for a regional trade grouping. This proposal was based on the 16 member countries of the East Asia Summit. The subsequent ASEAN Plus Three and East Asia Summit meetings did not clarify what role or shape the community would have. The Chairman's Statement for the ASEAN Plus Three meeting stated: 20. We reaffirmed our commitment to the ASEAN Plus Three process as a main vehicle towards the long-term goal of building an East Asian community with ASEAN as the driving force. We noted Japan’s aspiration to reinvigorate the discussion towards building an East Asian community based on the principle of openness, transparency and inclusiveness and functional cooperation. ASEAN Plus Three was noted as "a" main vehicle whereas earlier language had been "the". The Chairman's Statement Fourth