Asia-Pacific leaders promised progress on freeing up global trade at a summit in Hanoi dominated, as in previous years, by diplomatic manoeuvring over North Korea.
Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet read a ”Hanoi Declaration” that detailed issues that members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum agreed on, including economic security threats and free trade.
Officials said the Apec chairperson also read out a statement in the closed-door session condemning North Korea’s missile launches and its October 9 nuclear test as a threat to peace and security.
North Korea’s actions posed ”a clear threat to our shared interest of peace and security and our shared goal of achieving a nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula”, read the statement, which was circulated widely at the forum.
The 21 leaders at the Apec forum met at a new convention centre on the outskirts of the capital before donning traditional Vietnamese silk ao dai tunics for the annual family photo.
Farm subsidies
The leaders of Apec, which accounts for nearly half of global trade, pledged on the first day of the summit on Saturday to make compromises on farm subsidies and industrial tariffs in an ”urgent effort” to jump-start the Doha Round of trade talks.
”Each of us is committed to moving beyond our current positions,” they said in a statement as the summit began.
But, as is often the case at pan-Asian meetings these days, it was North Korea that dominated the headlines.
David McCormick, a White House National Security Council official, said the United States would have preferred if the North Korean statement was included in the declaration.
All the countries involved in six-party talks to end North Korea’s nuclear programmes are in Hanoi except for the North itself. Pyongyang has agreed to return to the negotiating table after a year-long hiatus but no date has been set.
US officials have been taking a hard line on what will be expected from all concerned before a meeting can be scheduled, namely a firm agenda and a readiness by the North to offer ”concrete steps”.
As well as the Saturday summit, US President George Bush squeezed in meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latest in a flurry of talks focused on North Korea as Bush tried to line up a united response to a potentially destabilising global threat.
”We recognise that working together we can accomplish a lot for the security of the world and the prosperity of our people,” Bush told Hu.
The week-long Apec extravaganza has attracted 10 000 officials, businessmen and journalists to Vietnam’s new $270-million convention centre.
None of the agreements in the declaration is legally binding for a group that prides itself on operating by consensus. — Reuters