Washington and Beijing have both confirmed the presence of US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the 2015 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in the Philippines next week.
Obama and Xi will join other global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Beijing on Monday has confirmed that President Xi will be in the Philippines to attend the summit, amidst the ongoing territorial dispute at the South China Sea. A spokesman for China’s Foreign Affairs Department said Xi will discuss bilateral relations with his Philippine counterpart during the meeting.
Meanwhile, Philippine organizer for APEC 2015, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Laura del Rosario, said on Monday that APEC is not just a talk shop,
The APEC has been where ideas incubate, del Rosario said, citing two instances of the successful transformation of ideas into action: the recently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that was introduced during APEC 2009, and the digital revolution that followed APEC 2010.
The TPP, a binding trade agreement that contains measures to lower trade barriers, such as tariffs, and establishes an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, was introduced by United States President Barack Obama in APEC 2009, del Rosario said.
Twelve of the 21 APEC economies finalized the TPP last October 5, building on the 2005 formation called P4, composed of four APEC members — New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore, and Chile.
Later, Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, the United States, and Vietnam joined to expand P4 into the TPP. In a recent visit to the US, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said his country intends to join the TPP – BusinessNewsAsia.com