By Bill Tarrant
PATTAYA, Thailand, April 12 (Reuters) - The East Asia Summit, which collapsed in chaos on Saturday, was meant to provide an opportunity for leaders of half the world's population to discuss responses to the global financial crisis.
The Asian leaders were also scheduled to sign an investment pact with China and put the final touches on a regional currency pool to help member nations fend off speculative attacks and capital flight.
"The summit has been delayed and can be reopened, but we lost a good opportunity" to discuss financial cooperation and combat protectionism, said Zhou Fangye, of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The East Asia Summit brings together the 10 member nations of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand for discussions about trade, economic issues and regional security.
The annual meeting is almost the only time Asian leaders gather without U.S. or European leaders. The Asian group has been struggling to create a focus and identity since their first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
Thai protesters forced the cancellation of the summit after blockading hotels where visiting leaders stayed and storming into the media centre to denounce the Thai prime minister.
Thailand Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the investment agreement with China and the foreign currency pool arrangement would most likely be inked in July at the annual meetings of ASEAN foreign ministers and their "dialogue partners".
Thailand is still scheduled to host that event, as well as an ASEAN economic ministers meeting in September and the annual ASEAN summit in November or December, he said.
"The annual ASEAN foreign ministers meeting and post-ministerial meetings with our dialogue partners, including the U.S. and EU, is the next big event in front of us," Tharit told Reuters.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had been expected to sign a China-ASEAN Investment Agreement, capping long-running talks for a comprehensive free trade area that would be the world's largest, encompassing 1.8 billion people and a combined GDP of $2 trillion.
China signed an initial free trade agreement (FTA) with the 10 members of ASEAN in November 2002, and both sides had set 2010 as a deadline for a broader pact.
ASEAN has FTAs with Japan and South Korea and just over a month ago inked one with Australia and New Zealand. Eventually, the East Asia members hope to link up the pacts to create a free trade area stretching from Beijing to Sydney and Manila to Delhi.
China had also planned to establish a $10 billion infrastucture investment fund and offer credit to its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), its foreign minister said late on Saturday on his return from Thailand.
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was hoping to push his pet project, an Asia-Pacific Community covering regional economic, political and security affairs.
"He was going to get a bashing on that from the leaders," said one ASEAN official who did not want to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Rudd never even made it to Pattaya. His flight was diverted to Singapore when it became clear the summit was off.
SUSPICIONS
Some East Asia leaders, China in particular, are suspicious that Rudd's idea is a way of bringing the United States back into their East Asia equation, the diplomat said.
Leaders from ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea had been set to back expansion of a currency swap network to $120 billion from $80 billion to deal with any shortages caused by the kind of capital flight that characterised the "Asian contagion" financial crisis a decade ago.
That can be formally implemented at the ASEAN secretariat anytime and does not need the leaders' formal signature, the ASEAN diplomat said.
The leaders were also expected to discuss trade protectionism, climate change, energy and food security and responding to disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and last year's cyclone in Myanmar.
Analysts will be assessing the damage to the credibility of ASEAN, long derided as a talk shop but now on its way to becoming a rules-based EU-style community, from the collapsed summit.
Malaysia's new Prime Minister Najib Razak did not think it would matter much.
"This is a domestic problem and it did not affect the spirit of ASEAN," he was quoted as saying in the Star newspaper. "Our cooperation is still strong and our partners are still interested in working with us."
He said the Thai government should be given a chance to host the meeting.
"I am sure for the next summit, they will take into account the experience this time." (Editing by Jerry Norton)