Summit in the USA
APEC group disagrees on wars in Ukraine and Gaza
The USA is hosting this year’s APEC summit. photo
© Evan Vucci/AP
The APEC Group is an economic forum. In addition to this year’s summit host USA, Russia and China are also part of the group, as are several predominantly Muslim countries.
The members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) did not agree on a common position on the wars at their summit in San Francisco Ukraine and Gaza can communicate. The two conflicts were left out of the joint final declaration.
A separate statement from the APEC chairmanship said “most members” strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. At their meeting in San Francisco, the member states also “exchanged” themselves about the crisis in the Gaza Strip and presented their “respective positions”. However, some heads of state and government were against including the topics in the final declaration “on the grounds that, in their view, APEC is not a forum for discussing geopolitical issues.”
Putin stays away from APEC meeting
21 countries around the Pacific work together in the APEC group. In addition to this year’s host USA, these include China, Russia and Japan as well as the predominantly Muslim countries of Malaysia and Indonesia. Around 40 percent of the world’s population lives in the APEC countries. The bloc together generates around 60 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). The group’s goal is to strengthen member states’ economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region by reducing trade barriers.
Russia was represented at the meeting in San Francisco by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk. Many representatives of the Russian leadership are subject to sanctions because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Their travels to the West are therefore considered sensitive. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had already stayed away from the APEC meeting last year. At the summit in Thailand, the vast majority of APEC countries condemned the Ukraine war in the final declaration. At the same time, it also said that there were also “other views and different assessments of the situation”.
Since then, another international conflict has emerged with Israel’s war against the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip. There is criticism of the Israeli military’s actions and great solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, particularly in predominantly Muslim countries.