The impetus for this research was to instigate a thorough examination of the historiographical survey and history of inter-regional ties between the Middle East and North-East Asia. It remains a work in progress, given the complexity of the topic and evolving interrelationships between the two regions. The text may also be used to study how energy inter-regionalism is studied, imagined and discussed in addition to implementation and exchange. In surveying the interregional literature between North-East Asia and the Middle East, several entities appear to be commonly mentioned, studied or researched. They included Japan and China, but India and particularly the US were indispensible in such discussions given their important and significant influence. In the history between the two regions, contemporary literature, particularly the recent ones, also highlight the non-energy aspect of the trade between the two regions.

The discussions may allude to the presence of inter-regional ties between the two regions. Surveying the literature, it appears the dominant feature discussed may be a definitional feature of a region's ties with one important or large economy/entity/state (e.g. India, Japan, US and China in this case). Given the lack of a macro-regional framework or a North-East Asian regional organization in dealing with the Middle East as a region, the dominant format of inter-regional ties appears to be the Middle East's region's relations with each individual large economy or state.