The statement was a departure from convention for the Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, which normally focuses on trade and business issues.
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NOW that the painfully disruptive APEC summit has finally reached its end, we can sit back and take a calmer look at whether the sacrifice imposed on the public was worth it.
“Under the shadow cast by the terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and against Russian aircraft over the Sinai, and elsewhere, we strongly condemn all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism in all their forms and manifestations”, the declaration read.
The latest condemnation by the Asia-Pacific leaders came as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned of the possible use of chemical or biological weapons by the associates of those who carried out the bloody attacks in Paris.
Also taking center stage at the APEC summit were last week’s Paris terror attacks and the members’ pledge to fight against terrorism.
APEC officials say if the FTAAP could be finalized by 2025, it will generate about 2.4 trillion USA dollars for the global economy.
APEC economies have started drafting a collective strategic study on issues related to the eventual realization of the FTAAP. Of course, APEC has traditionally been characterized by a lack of follow-through-a review of the records shows that only about half of the initiatives launched in previous years’ summits have ever made it beyond the aspirational statement stage-but at least the ones raised in this year’s meeting are clear enough to provide a few sort of yardstick with which to monitor and measure progress, and are things that are worth hoping there will be progress toward actual implementation.
But comprehensive trade deals are hard to achieve in reality, he added, and reckoned that plurilateral trade agreements such as the TPP and RCEP, involving smaller groupings of countries or sectors, are the building blocks to deals like the FTAAP.
Philippine Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said tensions in the disputed sea will be addressed at a series of meetings this weekend in Kuala Lumpur of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries, including China, Japan and the United States.
In August, China’s central bank devalued its yuan currency by almost two percent against the US dollar, marking the biggest slide in a decade.
Analysts saw the moves more as symbolic warnings to China than direct confrontation.
These agreements and commitments are said to be the fruit of Filipinos’ cooperation during the APEC week.
This week US President Barack H. Obama has sought to bolster allies locked in a territorial row with China over the South China Sea, which is home to a few of the world’s most important shipping lanes.
“Terrorism is the common enemy of human beings”, Mr Xi said, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
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Most other APEC members, including South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, have expressed interest in joining the TPP. It will be the second time the nation has hosted the forum after the 2005 summit in Busan.
