AP Photo

The East Asia Summit (EAS), a slowly-stabilising geopolitical forum that includes India and China as also Japan, is running behind schedule by a year. The fourth annual meeting of the EAS leaders, which Thailand is set to host later this month, should have taken place last year itself. Thailand’s internal political crisis explains the delay; and vivid still are the images of Thai protesters disrupting the planned summit last April.

It may be politically correct to avoid a value judgment now as to whether or not the delay has been a blessing in disguise for the 16-state EAS forum. However, two new political “visions” of East Asia as a potential community, overlapping and even competing in scope, are now in focus. The prospective summit will take place in the...