SINGAPORE — Come the middle of this month, almost all the key players of Asia will meet in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will include other Pacific leaders plus U.S. President Barack Obama.
At the ASEAN summit in late October in Thailand, the 10 Southeast Asian leaders met counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea. These 13 countries then met again with India, Australia and New Zealand.
Some 42 agreements were reportedly penned at the meeting, on issues ranging from outstanding trade and economic matters to the start of a human rights commission. Not bad for a summit that some feared would not happen at all: An earlier meeting planned for April in Bangkok had been disrupted by protesters — "red shirts" who support ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.