The trade and foreign ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum on Saturday jointly called for the region's further economic integration as talks on key free trade deals continued on the Indonesian island of Bali.
"We reaffirm our commitment to achieve a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, including by continuing APEC's work to provide leadership and intellectual input into the process of regional economic integration," said a joint statement adopted at the end of their two-day ministerial meeting.
"We agreed to enhance communication among RTAs/FTAs, as well as increase the capacity of APEC economies to engage in substantive negotiations," it said, referring to regional and free trade agreements.