U.S. President Barack Obama said many nations have already been working together to defeat Islamic State, but it will be a multi-year task and only a political settlement in civil war-torn Syria will eliminate the group’s safe havens there.
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“We reiterate our commitment to achieve the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment by 2020 and to the eventual realization of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP)”, they said in the declaration, referring to the goals adopted at the 1994 APEC meeting in Bogor, Indonesia.
The lead up to Wednesday and Thursday’s summit talks were also dominated by sparring between Washington and Beijing over the South China Sea issue.
The Trade Department said the year-long Apec meetings held in various cities of the country resulted in identifying specific actions, practical initiatives and programs that will enhance the MSME agenda and its implementation plan.
He also commended the host country, the Philippines, for developing the Apec Services Cooperation Framework, which will eventually establish a roadmap for comprehensive services liberalisation in the future. “China’s economy has strong resilience, great potential and ample room for maneuvering”.
“We will make ecological progress part and parcel of the entire process of our economic and social development”, Xi said.
However, the main concern among these 12 was whether the U.S. Congress would ratify the pact before Obama leaves office in just over a year from now.
“Your businesses can do right by your bottom lines and by our planet and future generations”, Obama said.
“If the whole idea is to broaden trade, making it exclusive actually defeats the whole objective of why you enter into all of these agreements”, Aquino said earlier in the week. Thousands of police and military personnel are deployed in Manila and a few downtown thoroughfares are closed to all but official vehicles.
Nonetheless anti-APEC protests were able to break through barricades to protest around one kilometre (0.6 miles) away from the summit venue, scuffling with police in riot gear.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigner Ashley Fruno says “We were shocked that our event was stopped, as all we were doing was advocating for kindness and reminding APEC leaders and delegates that animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change”.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose, meanwhile, said the Philippines agreed not to raise the issue of territorial and maritime disputes upon the request of the Chinese president, made even before he arrived in Manila for the meetings, and also because the APEC was not the “proper venue” for discussing such issues.
The Philippines has challenged China’s territorial claims before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
During the sidelines of APEC Leaders’ Meeting, the Philippine government through President Benigno Aquino III and his Cabinet was able to seal deals on military modernization, trade, strategic partnerships, cooperation in risk reduction, transportation, tourism, technical vocational training, health, anti-illegal drugs drive, avoidance of taxation and support for the overseas Filipino workers, among others with various APEC economy members.
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Such rifts often have strained APEC’s facade of handshakes and unity, overshadowing talks on trade and development.
