An Asia-Pacific summit on Tuesday endorsed a Beijing-backed route towards a vast free trade area in the region, host Xi Jinping said, calling it a ‘historic’ step.
At the same time the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting saw a flurry of diplomatic activity, with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin—often criticised by the West—meeting his US counterpart Barack Obama and, separately, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.
A day earlier Xi had met Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe, in the first formal leaders’ meeting for nearly three years between the Asian neighbours, who have an often difficult relationship.
China has been keen to underscore its rising trade and diplomatic clout during the summit, at a lakeside venue north of the Chinese capital, and Xi said the bloc had ‘approved the roadmap for APEC to promote and realise the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific’.
He called it a ‘historic’ step reflecting the ‘confidence and commitment of APEC members to promote the integration of the regional economy’, and symbolising ‘the official launch of the process towards the FTAAP’.
-With New Age input
