Statements made by the US side at the recently-held Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit caused controversy and discord, spoiling the whole atmosphere of the meeting, and eventually failed to contribute to the achievement of consensus, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Geng Shuang said on Monday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2018) Statements made by the US side at the recently-held Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit caused controversy and discord, spoiling the whole atmosphere of the meeting, and eventually failed to contribute to the achievement of consensus, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Geng Shuang said on Monday.
The two-day summit was held in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, on Saturday and Sunday. The participants of the forum failed to adopt a final joint statement as a result of the summit for the first time ever. According to media reports, discord between China and the United States, which are engaged in a major trade dispute, prevented the participants from reaching a consensus.
"Statements made by the Chinese side were not directed against anyone and did not provoke anyone. However, everyone saw how the US side behaved. It looked as if the US side was enraged during the APEC summit. The statements made by the US side openly caused controversy, created artificial discord, spoiled the atmosphere of the meeting and did not contribute to the achievement of consensus," Geng told a briefing.
The spokesman also stressed that the reason why the final declaration had not been passed was different from the one given by the United States.
"The APEC leaders indeed failed to adopt the final declaration. But the reason for that is not the one given by the US side ... As far as I know, the policy of brute force and economic terror faced opposition from most of the countries-participants," the spokesman said.
US-China trade relations have been increasingly tense since June when US President Donald Trump decided to impose 25-percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of imported Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated. The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that it wanted to defend the principle of multilateralism in international trade and objected to unilateral actions and protectionism.
APEC was established in 1989 as a regional forum aimed at strengthening economic integration among its members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
