The 11th Economic
Leaders Meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
opened in Bangkok Monday afternoon amid tight security.
The first-day session,
called "retreat I," of the two-day event, was held in the Thai
Government House following the arrivals of leaders in alphabetical
order of the 21 APEC economies.
Following a photo pose,
the leaders began their closed-door talks in a "casual" manner,
which Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he was hoping
for.
The session, chaired by
Thaksin, would last around 75 minutes.
This year's APEC
leaders' meeting is expected to be dominated by efforts to salvage
the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, enhance economic
cooperation and strengthen the combat against terrorism.
Some 20,000 police and
troops have been deployed in the Thai capital to ensure safety for
the event.
Later in the afternoon,
the leaders will have a dialogue with the APEC Business Advisory
Council.
On October 17-18, the
APEC ministers, who finalized the agenda for the leaders' meeting,
called for reviving the Doha Round talks and reiterated pledge to
realize the Bogor Goals, which aim for free and open trade between
APEC developed members by 2010 and between developing members by
2020.
The APEC leaders'
meeting came one month after the collapse of the World Trade
organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, and one
year after the devastating terror bombings on the Indonesian island
of Bali, which killed 202 people. APEC members, such as Russia and
Indonesia, were also struck by terror attacks this year.
(Xinhua News Agency
October 20, 2003)