Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation:
The US President and his Chinese counterpart are likely to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea.
- It is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific.
- It aims to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative, and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.
- The focus of APEC has been on trade and economic issues, and hence, it terms the countries as “economies”.
- It has been operating on the basis of non-binding commitments, with decisions taken through commitments and consensus undertaken on a voluntary basis.
- There are no binding commitments or treaty obligations.
- Currently, APEC has 21 members.
- The criterion for membership, however, is that each member must be an independent economic entity, rather than a sovereign state.
- The grouping’s current members are Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.
- The APEC Secretariat is based in Singapore and operates as the core support mechanism for the APEC process.
- APEC’s member economies are home to more than 2.9 billion people and make up over 60 percent of global GDP.
