U.S. to push anti-terror agenda at APEC meeting
Agence France-Presse, Washington
The United States will push its global anti-terrorism agenda at upcoming meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and hopes the new focus will revitalize the 21- member regional grouping, a US official said Thursday.
Washington hopes to use the Oct. 17-18 APEC ministers meetings and the Oct. 20-21 leaders summit to press for strengthened customs controls, improved aircraft, airport and port security, curbs on financing for terrorists, and protection for critical economic sectors like telecommunications and oil, the official said.
In addition, President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick will use the Shanghai meetings to look at ways for international markets to cope with the effects of possible future terrorist attacks, he said.
The APEC talks will be the first major international meetings since the Sept. 21 strikes in New York and Washington and the creation of a U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition that is seeking to end extremist violence.
Those attacks have shifted the primary focus of the meetings from boosting sluggish economies in the Asia-Pacific region to the fight against terrorism, the official said.
"We are working now with our APEC economies to come up with a very strong (anti-terrorism) statement at the meetings and we expect that there will be a very strong statement," he said.
"Of course, we are still concerned about the general situation but the new element will be how APEC economies can pull together to counter terrorism," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
"Obviously, it's a very important opportunity for the economies and nations in the region to express their joint commitment to fighting terrorism in very specific ways," he said.
Powell, Evans and Zoellick will lead the US charge in Shanghai, urging APEC members to comply with UN anti-terrorism resolutions and sign and ratify an international convention to limit financing for extremists, the official said.
Bush will then follow, pressing home those points as well as others to be discussed in the ministers meetings, including the strengthening and standardization of various finance and security measures, he said.
Those would include new steps to ensure the safety of passenger and cargo air transport and prevent the disruption of telecommunications and the global oil market as well as keeping stricter customs inspections from interfering with international trade, the official said.
"We want to look at how we can strengthen customs enforcement so that we can meet our enhanced enforcement needs and at the same time don't interfere with trade and how to cope with the effects of terrorism by having policies that can minimize the economic impact," the official said.
APEC was set up in 1989 as an informal talking group for a dozen Asia-Pacific economies and has developed since into an engine to drive global and regional free trade.