North Korea scared off APEC summit
2022.11.18 01:07
North Korea scared off APEC summit
Budrigannews.com – Leaders of the Asia-Pacific region gathered in Bangkok on Friday for a two-day summit to focus on global economic issues, but North Korea undermined the opening of talks with alleged intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
The organizer, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, urged the participants of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to pursue sustainable growth and development after the economic and social challenges of COVID, climate change and geopolitical confrontation.
“We can no longer live like us. We need to adjust our outlook, our way of life and the way we do business,” he told an audience that included Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Established to promote economic integration, the APEC Group accounts for 38% of the world’s population, 62% of gross domestic product and 48% of trade, and represents 21 countries of the group.
Prayuth was referring to a North Korean missile that Japanese officials said landed just 200 kilometers (130 miles) from Japan and had enough range to reach the continental United States.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters in Bangkok for the Apec meeting that North Korea “repeated provocations with unprecedented frequency.”
The White House said in a statement that Harris will coordinate with regional leaders at the APEC meeting on missile tests.
The APEC meeting is the first summit in the region in 3 weeks. A summit of Southeast Asian countries, including China, Japan and the United States, was held in Cambodia, and a group of 20 countries (G20) met in Bali, Indonesia.
The previous meetings were dominated by the war in Ukraine, as well as tensions between Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.
Activists are eager for leaders to address food insecurity, rising inflation, climate change and human rights.
A reminder of the grassroots demands came as anti-government protesters in Thailand clashed with police about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the summit site after they tried to overturn a police car decorated with Prayuth and Xi posters, witnesses said.
Police were seen advancing on protesters with riot shields and beating them with batons. Some activists accused the police of firing rubber bullets, but the authorities denied this.
“We arrested the protesters because they crashed into police cars and other official assets and threw things at the police,” a senior police official told Reuters.
“Deliver hope”
Thai Foreign Minister Pramudwinai said the APEC meeting is being held at an “important milestone” in which the world is facing multiple risks.
“That is why this year APEC must go beyond these challenges and bring hope to the world at large,” he said in a statement.”He said in a statement
Xi warned against Cold War tensions in the region, which is the focus of competition between Beijing and Washington, and said that the Asia-Pacific region is not anyone’s backyard, but a place of competition for the great powers.,
In a written statement prepared for a business event related to the summit, Xi said: “The attempt to start a new Cold War is our moment with the people.”
In recent years, relations between the world’s two major economies have been tense, including tariffs, Taiwan, intellectual property, the removal of Hong Kong’s autonomy and disputes over the South China Sea.
Vice President Pence will visit the island of Palawan in the Philippines, on the edge of the South China Sea, a senior U.S. official said.
The trip will make Harris the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit a number of islands adjacent to the Spratly Islands. China is dredging the seabed to build ports, some of which have also been claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
At the G20 meeting, the country unanimously said that the majority of its members condemned the war in Ukraine, but also said that some countries have seen different conflicts.
Russia is a member of both the G20 and APEC, but Putin has stayed away from the summit. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov will represent him at APEC.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will also be in attendance, and French President Emmanuel Macron will be a special guest.
Kishida said he conveyed his concerns about peace in the Taiwan Strait after holding the first Japan-China summit in almost 3 years in Bangkok.
China’s CCTV reported that Xi told Kishida that the Taiwan issue was involved in the political foundations of relations between the two countries and that territorial disputes should be handled properly. The meeting came a day after tensions rose in Bali, where President Xi Jinping criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over alleged leaks of President Xi Jinping’s private meeting.Prime Minister Trudeau is also in Bangkok.
