Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

As Asia's economic leaders prepare their dance cards for November's annual waltz of regional trade liberalization known as APEC, impatient voices are threatening to drown out the orchestra.

President Obama is making his first visit to Asia since taking office. Obama will stop first in Tokyo, where he will deliver a major speech on his Pacific Rim policy and also meet with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Other countries on the itinerary are China, Singapore and South Korea. Obama will use the weeklong trip to strengthen ties to Asian leaders and send a strong message that the U.S. is "an Asia-Pacific nation and we are there for the long haul," as one administration official put it. Obama will need willing Asian partners as he works to combat nuclear proliferation, reduce the threat of global warming and invigorate the world economy.

President Bush arrived in South America on Friday for the final scheduled foreign trip of his presidency, hoping to bolster confidence in efforts to rescue the global economy and move forward on North Korean nuclear disarmament. The 21 member nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, whose summit Bush is attending, account for nearly half of all global trade and 55% of the world's gross domestic product, reflecting in part the ascendance of East Asia and China.

Whose destiny is it to lead the Pacific into the 21st Century? Pundits are asking that question with increasing frequency, wringing their hands over the decline of Pax Americana, fretting about Japan's dream of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and postulating about how the two great Pacific powers might balance their interests in a lasting partnership.

What is normally a staid annual gathering that seeks to dismantle tariffs and trade barriers has this weekend become a temporary war room for the relentless Asian financial crisis that has now engulfed South Korea, the world's 11th-largest economy. The meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vancouver, Canada, promises to be dominated by talk of financial rescues rather than trade liberalization.

* Today, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting of 21 members opens in Shanghai.

Delegation to Attend Trade Talks: Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and Trade Minister Li Lanqing will represent China in Seoul at this week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the first time the Chinese government will have an active delegation at the trade policy talks. China previously had observer status at APEC, but joined the organization this year. China, which has no diplomatic relations with the Seoul government, is beginning to develop close economic ties with South Korea.

Free Trade on the Rim: It may be Labor Day weekend, but it won't be a holiday for three dozen executives from businesses in 18 Pacific Rim nations. In a session co-chaired by Fluor Corp. Chairman Les McCraw, members of the Pacific Business Forum will meet Friday and Saturday in Irvine to wrap up a report on trade cooperation among the Pacific nations.

Pacific Rim leaders agreed to curb global warming by improving energy use and expanding forests, laying out a plan they hope will influence future climate change talks but that critics dismissed as too timid. President Bush, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, China's Hu Jintao and other leaders at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney adopted the program after officials struck a deal between richer and developing nations over targets.

The United States and its partners in the campaign to force North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program won the support Sunday of a summit of Pacific Rim nations, the latest effort to step up pressure in slow-moving talks with the isolated Pyongyang government. The declaration was issued as an informal statement delivered by the conference host, the president of Vietnam, rather than as a formal paper -- a distinction suggesting a less-authoritative step.

Presenting a united front on Iran's nuclear energy program, President Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev warned Sunday that they were losing patience with Tehran and wouldn't wait much longer for it to accept a proposal to resolve the dispute. After an hourlong meeting in Singapore on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, the two leaders expressed dissatisfaction with Iran's response to a proposal to ship its enriched uranium abroad to be refined further for use in an Iranian reactor to produce medical isotopes.

When President Bush and his Chilean counterpart, Ricardo Lagos, met this weekend at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, they saw eye-to-eye on free trade, monetary policy and the need to fight terrorism. But their two governments couldn't agree on one key issue: dinner. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush were to attend an elaborate state dinner Sunday at the La Moneda presidential palace here with Lagos and more than 200 dignitaries, including the heads of Chile's police and armed forces.

On his first trip overseas since winning reelection, President Bush on Saturday stepped up the pressure on Iran and North Korea, whose nuclear threats some critics accused him of neglecting in his first term. Bush saved his harshest words for Tehran, seizing on new allegations that the Iranians were proceeding with the manufacture of a gas used in the production of nuclear bombs, despite having pledged to halt such activity under a tentative accord with European nations.

Although economic development is the mission of the annual Asia-Pacific regional conference being held here this week, national security is intruding into the conversation -- especially when American officials are in the room.

Pacific Rim leaders agreed to curb global warming by improving energy use and expanding forests, laying out a plan they hope will influence future climate change talks but that critics dismissed as too timid. President Bush, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, China's Hu Jintao and other leaders at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney adopted the program after officials struck a deal between richer and developing nations over targets.

The United States warned of "possible threats" against Americans at an economic summit here to be attended by President Clinton. The warning raised doubts about security arrangements for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which has been beset by security headaches since it opened Wednesday. Authorities have found two bombs in Manila and have struggled to restrain anti-APEC protesters.

A 29-year-old math teacher who goes by the name Patricio says that as soon as President Bush arrives in this South American capital Friday, the fighting will begin. "We'll knock down some barriers, set some fires, paint some graffiti," said the anti-globalization activist who declined to provide his real name. "We are going to go where the police don't want us to go."

The Thai government is coming under fire for erecting a giant plastic sheet to keep visiting world leaders from seeing one of the capital's unsightly slums during this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. As part of a $13.9-million campaign to beautify Bangkok, a colossal welcome banner has been hung along the Chao Phraya River to hide the slums from guests when they attend a traditional Royal Barge procession Monday. The curtain has been denounced as, at best, a waste of money.