Leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific economies were to meet yesterday to chart ways to boost trade despite turmoil in the global economy, as aspiring powers China and Russia bid farewell to US President George W. Bush.
A week after a 20-nation summit in Washington urged action to repair the crippled financial system itself, the Asia-Pacific summit was expected to focus on defending free trade as a way to kickstart slowing economies.
“There is a substantially advanced boutique industry called ‘gloom and doom' that is all about people saying how bad it is,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
“You can either be part and parcel of that process or you can take up the mantle of leadership and do something about it,” he said.
Ministers from the APEC forum set the stage for the summit with a joint call against protectionism, with some airing concerns that Bush's successor Barack Obama would be less supportive of free markets.
The tightly guarded summit in the Pacific coast city was the last scheduled foreign trip for Bush, who leaves office on Jan. 20 with his approval ratings hovering at all-time lows.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was scheduled to hold a potentially confrontational final summit with Bush yesterday. Medvedev will tour four countries in Latin America, traditionally Washington's sphere of influence, with arms deals on the cards.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Moscow was only selling defensive weapons to Latin America — a swipe at the Bush administration, which infuriated Russia with plans for a missile defense shield in former Soviet bloc countries.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) also sought a greater role in Latin America, but both sides described his final meeting with Bush on Friday as friendly and even sentimental.
Hu told Bush he appreciated the “advances in ties achieved in the past few years” and invited him to visit China after leaving office, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) told reporters.
“He also expressed hope that the next US administration can recognize the importance of China-US ties,” Liu said in reference to Obama.
Bush allowed that he was “a little nostalgic” at his last meeting with Hu as head of state and highlighted stable relations with a rising China as a key achievement of his term.
However, Bush repeated his call for China to continue dialogue with representatives of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
He also pressed for further action on ending North Korea's nuclear program, a key area where Bush has hoped to achieve progress before he hands the keys of the White House to Obama.
North Korea was expected to take center-stage when Bush holds a three-way summit in Lima with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Japan has tense relations with North Korea in part because of the communist state's past kidnappings of Japanese civilians. Aso on Friday lobbied Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to join international efforts to isolate Pyongyang.
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Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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