APEC leaders seek free trade progress at annual summit
AFP, Beijing :
Asia-Pacific leaders gathered Tuesday for the climax of their annual summit, with free trade at the top of the agenda as they sought to narrow differences on how to open up commerce across the vast region.
US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who helm the world’s three biggest economies, were among the leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
But the parade of initial handshakes at a lakeside conference centre north of the Chinese capital revealed the diplomatic differences between the participants.
Putin and Xi, who praised their mutual friendship at the weekend, nodded and smiled together, while Obama, fresh from announcing a reciprocal deal between Beijing and Washington to extend visa validities, went so far as to tap the Chinese leader on the shoulder, grinning broadly.
Tony Abbott of Australia-a significant source of raw materials for the Chinese economy-was treated to an extended grip.
But China is embroiled in territorial and historic disputes with Japan, and their the neighbours held their first top-level formal talks in nearly three years at the weekend.
Shinzo Abe was accorded only a perfunctory handshake by an unsmiling Xi, provoking laughter in the summit media centre.
China wants the 21-member APEC meeting to endorse a stronger commitment to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) idea, a longer-term concept for the entire region that would build on other free-trade initiatives including the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“APEC should play a leading and coordinating role and break various fetters to usher in a new round of opening at a broader, higher and more profound level,” Xi told the summit’s opening session, in a colonnaded room.
“We should break open the closed doors within the Asia Pacific. We should… push vigorously for the progress of the FTAAP, setting out clearly its targets, direction and roadmap and turn the desire into reality at an early date.”
Asia-Pacific leaders gathered Tuesday for the climax of their annual summit, with free trade at the top of the agenda as they sought to narrow differences on how to open up commerce across the vast region.
US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who helm the world’s three biggest economies, were among the leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
But the parade of initial handshakes at a lakeside conference centre north of the Chinese capital revealed the diplomatic differences between the participants.
Putin and Xi, who praised their mutual friendship at the weekend, nodded and smiled together, while Obama, fresh from announcing a reciprocal deal between Beijing and Washington to extend visa validities, went so far as to tap the Chinese leader on the shoulder, grinning broadly.
Tony Abbott of Australia-a significant source of raw materials for the Chinese economy-was treated to an extended grip.
But China is embroiled in territorial and historic disputes with Japan, and their the neighbours held their first top-level formal talks in nearly three years at the weekend.
Shinzo Abe was accorded only a perfunctory handshake by an unsmiling Xi, provoking laughter in the summit media centre.
China wants the 21-member APEC meeting to endorse a stronger commitment to the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) idea, a longer-term concept for the entire region that would build on other free-trade initiatives including the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“APEC should play a leading and coordinating role and break various fetters to usher in a new round of opening at a broader, higher and more profound level,” Xi told the summit’s opening session, in a colonnaded room.
“We should break open the closed doors within the Asia Pacific. We should… push vigorously for the progress of the FTAAP, setting out clearly its targets, direction and roadmap and turn the desire into reality at an early date.”
