The Sydney APEC Summit
A catchy slogan appeared in Sydney "Twenty-one leaders, one great city" for APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Coopera-tion) Summit. The Summit took place on 7th and 8th September and the delegations including ministers, senior officials and top business leaders started arriving at Sydney from 3rd of September. Australians took pride in holding the Summit at the beautiful harbour city, although about $300 million dollars of taxpayers' money were spent. During the Summit, the central business district of Sydney became a "fortress". Friday 7th Sep, the first day of the summit, was declared a public holiday to ease the traffic of the office goers. Currently APEC countries represent 60% of world's GDP and 40% of world's population. Five of the world's six biggest standing armies and four of the world's eight declared nuclear powers cluster around the table. Furthermore, around the APEC table are also six of the world's ten biggest carbon-emitting countries. The leaders include one absolute monarch, Communist heads of states and other heads of states/governments including the big three-- the US, China and Russia. Every year APEC provides an opportunity for Asian and Pacific leaders to meet with the US President, other than bilateral visits, which are strictly one-on-one affairs that do not allow regional interplay. AUSTRALIA'S INITIATIVE
APEC Forum was an initiative of Australia's Labour Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1989 in which 12 countries participated. His successor Paul Keating elevated it to a summit level in agreement with President Clinton and the first was held in 1993. It regularly meets every year. Last year it met in Vietnam. Apart from the Commonwealth, Australia has not been a member of any Asian Forum. It is an "odd-man out" in the area because although it is geographically located in the Asia Pacific region, its history is tied with Britain. Furthermore its "White Immigration" policy which had alienated Asian countries was only dismantled totally in 1974, although the policy was getting relaxed since 1968. Necessity is the mother of invention and the then Australian Prime Minister followed the spirit of the adage and invented a forum in which Australia could mix with Asia- Pacific countries. After Britain joined the European Union in the early 70s, Australia's economy had to depend on its exports to Asia and currently 80% per cent of its exports go to Asian and Pacific countries and China has become the largest trading partner. MEMBERS OF APEC
The eligibility of membership is that a country must be in Asia and share borders with the Pacific directly or indirectly through sea, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore via Malacca Straits and Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand. Now it has grown to 21 countries including Russia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Canada, the US, China, Australia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, and Brunei. APEC is founded on economic cooperation and not on the basis of nation-state and that is why Taiwan and Hong Kong are members. There is a moratorium for new members but some countries including Australia want to get India as a member. Some countries oppose India's entry because India cannot claim to be a Pacific country given its geography. Its main agenda was trade and economic cooperation. Gradually the agenda has expanded into security, climate change and energy. Since 9/11, terrorism has become an important agenda item. Business leaders of the member countries simultaneously meet and discuss major global and regional issues and recommend plans for action to the political leaders. WHAT DID IT ACHIEVE IN SYDNEY?
The agenda items have been broadly discussed but concrete results are missing. What was important was that the world leaders had the opportunity to discuss sensitive and regional issues in bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit meeting. Since the US is bogged down in Iraq, at the Sydney Summit, President Bush concentrated his remarks on Iraq and national security. Among Asian issues, he only mentioned Burma's abuses of human rights. Critics pointed out that President Bush should have realised that it was Asia Pacific forum and should have devoted to the issues affecting the Asian Pacific countries. China's President discussed trade promotion among countries and Russian President wanted a broader agenda for APEC that might include corruption in some Asian Pacific countries that posed a threat to trade and investment promotion. WHY IT DID NOT ACHIEVE MUCH?
Sydney APEC Summit did not achieve much because the interests of member countries are so varied that consensus is not easily achieved on big issues. APEC is too big and handling too many issues is difficult when it was originally set up to unlock trade and investment across member-economies. Asia Pacific region is diverse and APEC in its present form does not address regional security. Furthermore APEC is economic, too broad and India is missing. How can one talk seriously on security issues at a forum where both China and Taiwan are present? That is why two other forums in the region have cropped up. One is the ASEAN +3 (Japan, China and Korea) group and the other is East Asian Summit with ASEAN + 3 +Australia, New Zealand, and India. None of the forums includes the US. TWO QUESTIONS ARE FOREMOST IN THE REGION
First, the main concern is how to handle China's rise. Currently the US, Japan and Australia have a security alliance and they want India to join the trilateral alliance to contain the rise of China. To ease concerns of China, Australia's largest trading partner, Australia and China agreed to hold annual meeting on security matters. (During APEC meeting, Australia signed a $45 billion gas export deal with China.) Some commentators have indicated that the present policy of the US towards China as a "strategic competitor" is wrong and instead the US should have a regional security forum with China, Japan and Korea. The main issue is how to turn China's entry into strategic environment of Asia Pacific into a positive factor. Second, the rise of China and India is so significant and intimidating that some stresses are inevitable in neighbouring countries. The neighbours look at the rise of the two countries with both admiration and apprehension. Adjustments will be easier and smoother if neighbours of China and India get a voice in a forum in addressing the impact of emerging economic political and strategic landscape at the 21st century. None of the forums indicated above could address the above two burning issues. CONCLUSION
Some strategists say that a new forum, consisting of the US and representatives from countries of East Asia, South Asia and North Asia, is to be set up for addressing the issues concerning the countries of the region. Its sole function would be to discuss the central issues affecting regional security and prosperity. The author is former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.
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