ASEAN Plus Three
The leaders of each country felt the need to further integrate the region. Beginning in 1997, the bloc began creating organisations with the intention of achieving this goal. ASEAN Plus Three was the first of these and was created to improve existing ties with the People's Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea. This was followed by the even larger East Asia Summit (EAS), which included ASEAN Plus Three countries as well as India, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and Russia. This new grouping acted as a prerequisite for the planned East Asia Community, which was supposedly patterned after the now-defunct European Community. The ASEAN Eminent Persons Group was created to study the possible successes and failures of this policy as well as the possibility of drafting an ASEAN Charter. In 2006, ASEAN was given observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.[33] In response, the organisation awarded the status of "dialogue partner" to the UN.