Malaysia hosts APEC Summit

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation was recently hosted by Malaysia. Several leaders of the cooperation joined the summit. The Summit was attended by the US President Donald Trump as well. The next APEC meeting is to be hosted by New Zealand. Earlier on November 17, 2020, the members of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation held ministerial meeting. The members then committed towards free and open trade and investment.

About the Summit

The APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 was adopted during the Summit.  It envisions and open, resilient peaceful Asia Pacific community by 2040. The Summit also replaced the 1994 Bogor Goals with post 2020 vision.  The economies are to achieve the post 2020 vision through three economic drivers such as trade and investment, strong balance secure sustainable and inclusive growth, Innovation and digitalization.

Obstacles

The APEC faced several hardships to conduct the Summit since 2018. In 2018, Chile had cancelled the summit due to violent domestic protests. Later at the Papua New Guinea summit in 2018, the APEC economies failed to arrive at a joint statement due to trade war between the United States and China.

Members of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

The members of the grouping are Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Hongkong, Chile, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea ah, Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and United States of America.

Why is India not a member of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation?

India had requested for a membership at the grouping. However, the members of the grouping had decided not to allow India as the country does not border Pacific Ocean. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation mainly includes countries that are bordering the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, India has gained support from United States, Papua Guinea on, Japan and Australia to become a full-time member of the grouping. India is currently and observer of the grouping.
It is to be noted that the Indo-Pacific was earlier called as Asia Pacific.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2020