By KRUTIKA PATHI, CHISATO TANAKA AND CHALIDA EKVITTHAYAVECHNUKUL, Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — Leaders from across the Asia-Pacific called for an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine and pledged to steer the region’s economies toward sustainable growth as they wrapped up summit meetings Saturday.
Host Thailand garnered a diplomatic coup in managing to bridge divisions among the many 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum by saying that the majority members had condemned the war. Russia is an APEC member, as is China, which generally has shunned criticizing Moscow.
The declaration issued by APEC leaders acknowledged differing views on the war and said the forum, which is devoted largely to promoting trade and closer economic ties, was not a venue for resolving such conflicts.
Nevertheless it noted that the conflict and other security issues “can have significant consequences for the worldwide economy.”
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The leaders’ statement said most members had strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, stressing that it’s causing immense human suffering and worsening inflation, supply chain troubles, food insecurity and financial risks.
Like an announcement issued by the Group of 20 leading economies in Bali, Indonesia, earlier this week, it echoed the wording of a March 2 United Nations General Assembly resolution that “deplores within the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine.”
The meetings Saturday wrapped up a flurry of events in Southeast Asian countries this week that gave leaders opportunities for face-to-face talks which were rare up to now two years of pandemic precautions.
Much of the activity at such summits occurs on the sidelines and within the interludes before and after the formal meetings.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke briefly on Saturday before the ultimate APEC meeting began. Harris reiterated President Joe Biden’s call, made in a gathering with Xi on the G-20, for either side to maintain lines of communication open.
Xi said he viewed his talks with Biden as a step toward a “next stage” in ties between the 2 largest economies, in line with a Chinese government summary of the meeting.
Relations have deteriorated recently amid friction over trade and technology, Chinese claims on the individually governed island of Taiwan, human rights and other issues. But Harris told Xi the U.S. “doesn’t seek confrontation or conflict with China.”
She received a “handover” in the shape of a symbolic “chalom” bamboo basket from the APEC host, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. The U.S. will host next yr’s APEC summit in San Francisco, with preliminary meetings to be held in other cities all year long.
Though summit meetings are sometimes sidetracked by other more urgent concerns, APEC’s long-term mission is promoting closer economic ties, and Prayuth opened Saturday’s meeting by urging the leaders to push ahead with APEC’s agenda of free trade within the Pacific region.
“We now have to present priority to turning this plan into motion,” he said.
Security risks are usually not on the formal APEC agenda, but Prayuth said North Korea’s quite a few recent missile launches were discussed and “everybody shares concern on that issue.”
On Friday, Harris and leaders of Australia, Canada, Japan, Recent Zealand and South Korea met individually to air concerns concerning the North’s launch earlier within the day of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
Each at APEC in Thailand and on the G-20 meeting in Indonesia, officials appear to have chosen to conform to disagree concerning the war in Ukraine while voicing anguish over its deepening impact. In each Bangkok and Bali, countries which have refused to sentence the invasion shunned blocking the discharge of statements harshly criticizing Moscow.
APEC members account for nearly 4 of each 10 people and almost half of world trade. Much of APEC’s work is technical and incremental, carried out by senior officials and ministers, covering areas equivalent to trade, forestry, health, food, security, small- and medium-size enterprises and girls’s empowerment.
The leaders’ declaration released Saturday also called for promoting more use of fresh energy and safer, environmentally sustainable food systems, amongst an array of goals that also address illegal, unregulated and unauthorized fishing, illegal logging, marine waste, improvements to public health and higher access to vaccinations.
Other APEC members include Brunei, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua Recent Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was to represent the Association of Southeast Asian Nations but didn’t attend after getting COVID-19.
The summit venue, at Bangkok’s essential convention center near an unlimited parkland, was cordoned off with some streets closed to traffic. Riot police stood guard behind barricades at major intersections to maintain protesters well away.
On Friday, police clashed in one other area of Bangkok with demonstrators who took the chance of the APEC meeting to renew calls for democratic reforms in Thailand and accuse the federal government of promoting policies to APEC that favor big business over bizarre people. Several people were injured and various arrests made.
Associated Press journalists Elaine Kurtenbach, Tian McLeod Ji, Grant Peck, Jerry Harmer and Tassanee Vejpongsa contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s APEC coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific-economic-cooperation
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