BANGKOK: Leaders gathering for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Thailand should \u201crise above differences,\u201d the host said on Thursday, after a series of summits in the region were dominated by geopolitical tension over the war in Ukraine.
\nThailand\u2019s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the meeting of the 21-member bloc, which starts Friday, \u201ctakes place at a pivotal juncture\u201d with the world facing multiple risks.
\n\u201cCancel mentality… permeates every conversation and action, (and) makes any compromise appear impossible,\u201d he said in a statement after a meeting of the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers ahead of the main summit.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s why APEC this year must rise above these challenges and deliver hope to the world at large.\u201d
\nThai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at a pre-summit business event said the focus of meetings would be \u201cnew trade and investment narratives… the need to reconnect supply chains and travel, and the global sustainability agenda.\u201d
\nOn the APEC sidelines, Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to have talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later in the day. Xi had been due to give an address to a business forum but canceled, organizers said.
\nUS Vice President Kamala Harris and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are among those also attending the main meeting, while French President Emmanuel Macron is a special guest.
\nThe APEC meeting comes on the heels of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Bali where countries unanimously adopted a declaration saying most members condemned the war in Ukraine, but that also acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently.
\nHost Indonesia said the Ukraine war had been the most contentious issue.
\nThe war also figured prominently at the East Asia Summit and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits in Cambodia at the weekend, as did the crisis in Myanmar, whose ruling generals were barred from attending due to failure to follow a peace process.
\nOn Thursday, as leaders prepared for the APEC meeting, the junta in neighboring Myanmar announced it would free 5,774 political prisoners, among them a Japanese filmmaker, a former British ambassador and an Australian economist and former adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
\nActivists and the military\u2019s opponents welcomed the amnesty, but warned the world not to be tricked by the junta, which they said was using people as bargaining chips.
\nTensions also simmered elsewhere at the G20 summit in Bali when Xi criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person over alleged leaks of their closed-door meeting, a rare public display of annoyance by the Chinese leader.
\nRussia is a member of both G20 and APEC but President Vladimir Putin has stayed away. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov will stand in for him at APEC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK: Leaders gathering for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Thailand should \u201crise above differences,\u201d the host said on Thursday, after a series of summits in the region were dominated by geopolitical tension over the war in Ukraine. Thailand\u2019s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the meeting of the 21-member bloc, which starts Friday, \u201ctakes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-295775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n