The 17th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting ended yesterday afternoon in Singapore after members issued a joint declaration entitled "Sustaining Growth, Connecting the Region", and a statement themed "A New Growth Paradigm for a Connected Asia Pacific in the 21st Century". The overall tone of the statements was sombre, emphasising the fragility of the economic recovery and the need to engineer more balanced economic growth. The declaration also said that its members opposed all forms of protectionism and called for a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 2010. But the final communiqué disappointed with the absence of any hard commitments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and for its failure to make reference to exchange rate policies. Both issues had been included in earlier draft statements.
Twenty-one heads of government attended the two-day summit, including U.S. president Barack Obama, Chinese president Hu Jintao and Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama. This was the most important international event to have taken place in the city state since the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their annual meetings there in 2006. Many other meetings took place on the side, including the first summit bringing together the United States and the ten countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The major issues under consideration at the APEC summit were as follows:
As mentioned, President Obama also participated in the first-ever U.S.-ASEAN summit, where subjects under discussion included terrorism, nuclear proliferation, as well as development and environmental issues. Although the concrete results were limited to the participants agreeing to hold a regular annual summit, the meeting held strong symbolic significance. It showed how much importance the United States now attaches to its relations with the fast-growing region, and the regular summits should give additional momentum to co-operation. The meeting was also notable for being the first time in 43 years that a U.S. president has met with the Myanmar military regime's leader. At the summit, Obama "directly" urged Myanmar's prime minister Thein Sein to release detained opposition leader and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. According to the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the demand was made face-to-face. Obama also called on Myanmar to free 2,000 other political prisoners and end its crackdown against minority groups. The U.S. president is making good on his pledge to engage with "rogue" governments, which he argues is more effective than the isolation preferred by his predecessor. Prime Minister Thein Sein apparently thanked the United States for its new engagement policy, but did not respond to the demands over prisoners or Suu Kyi. The summit's final statement failed to mention Suu Kyi, only stating that the ASEAN leaders "welcomed the policy of the United States to engage with the government of Myanmar". This unsurprising lack of pressure on Myanmar indicates that no major policy shift or true pressure on Myanmar can be expected from other ASEAN states ahead of the military regime's May 2010 general elections. Aung San Suu Kyi,—whose National League for Democracy (NLD) achieved an overwhelming victory in the country's 1990 elections, but were refused power by the military junta—has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Her house arrest was extended for another 18 months in August.
The 21 members of APEC represent more than 50% of the world's economic output, and have the lofty goal of achieving a free-trade and investment area linking North and Latin America with East Asia and Australasia. But in reality, the group tends to decide very little. With APEC leaders releasing another broad and vaguely worded statement, this year was no exception. Indeed, APEC is an even more loosely co-ordinated group than ASEAN, which itself is often criticised for a lack of organisation and structure, raising serious questions over its ability to provide strong leadership and solutions to economic issues in the region.
The United States' promise of more direct engagement with South-East Asia has nonetheless been welcomed. Most importantly, increasing U.S. engagement with the bloc will allow the countries to diversify their economic and political relations. In recent years, they have become increasingly dependent on regional giant China. The United States offers a counterweight against this. Obama's willingness to talk to "rogue" leaders distinguishes him from his predecessor, George W. Bush, under which the U.S. engagement with the ASEAN bloc was reduced to a minimum due to difficulties in U.S.-Myanmar relations. As China's economic and military influence in the Asia-Pacific region is growing, the United States can no longer afford not to engage if it wishes to retain its world power status.
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