Separately, police fired rubber bullets to disperse anti-government protesters in Bangkok as the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, opened the conference. US Vice President Kamala Harris called an emergency gathering of leaders from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand on the sidelines of the summit after North Korea conducted a missile test just an hour before its opening. “This behavior by North Korea most recently is a flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” he said. “It destabilizes security in the region and unnecessarily increases tensions. Thailand’s Prayuth earlier urged summit participants to pursue sustainable growth and development following economic and social challenges from COVID, climate change and geopolitical rivalries. “We can no longer live the way we used to live. We have to adjust our outlook, our lifestyles and our ways of doing business,” he told an audience that included Harris and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Established to promote economic integration, APEC brings together 21 countries representing 38% of the world’s population and 62% of gross domestic product and 48% of trade. Prayuth did not mention the North Korean missile, which Japanese officials said landed just 200 km (130 miles) off Japan and had enough range to reach the United States mainland. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is in Bangkok for the APEC meeting, told reporters that North Korea was “repeating its provocations with unprecedented frequency.” The APEC summit is the third summit in the region in the past week. A Southeast Asia summit involving China, Japan and the United States was held in Cambodia, while the Group of 20 (G20) met on the Indonesian island of Bali. Previous meetings have been dominated by the war in Ukraine as well as tensions over Taiwan and the Korean peninsula. Campaigners want to see leaders tackle food insecurity, rising inflation, climate change and human rights. A reminder of the grassroots demands came as Thai pro-democracy protesters clashed with police about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the main Bangkok summit venue. Videos on social media showed protesters trying to overturn a police car, throwing projectiles and attacking police, while officers in riot gear advanced on them with shields and beat them back with batons. [1/10] U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, third right, meets with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, third left, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of the Republic of Korea, second right, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, left, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand, right, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, second left, to discuss North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launch at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday , Nov. 18, 2022. Haiyun Jiang/Pool via REUTERS An official in charge of security for the summit said police fired rubber bullets to disperse about 350 anti-government protesters. Police announced that they had arrested 10 people.
“DNA MODIFICATION”
French President Emmanuel Macron, a special guest at the summit, urged APEC leaders to re-embrace international norms and the multilateral approach to global peace and stability. Russia’s war in Ukraine was “an attack on international norms”, he said, and countries must deal with inequality and instability. “We need to reform the DNA of our economies. Everyone has accepted capitalism and trade, but we need to make it more inclusive and sustainable,” he said. At the G20 meeting in Indonesia, countries unanimously adopted a statement saying most members condemned the war in Ukraine, but also acknowledged that some countries saw the conflict differently. APEC ministers echoed this in a joint statement, saying some members condemn the war. “There were other views and different assessments of the situation and the sanctions,” the ministers said, adding that APEC was not the forum to resolve security issues. Russia is a member of both the G20 and APEC, but President Vladimir Putin stayed away from the summits. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov represents him at APEC. Xi, warning of Cold War tensions in a region that is at the heart of rivalry between Beijing and Washington, said on Thursday that the Asia-Pacific was no one’s backyard and should not become an arena of great power rivalry. “No attempt to wage a new Cold War will ever be allowed by the people or by our time,” Xi said in remarks at a business event linked to the summit. Relations between the world’s two largest economies have been strained in recent years over issues including tariffs, Taiwan, intellectual property, the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and disputes over the South China Sea. In a move likely to be seen by China as provocative, a US official said Harris would visit the Philippine islands of Palawan at the edge of the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday. The trip will make Harris the highest-ranking US official to visit the island chain, which is adjacent to the Spratly Islands. China has dredged the seabed to build ports and airstrips in the Spratlys, parts of which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng, Poppy McPherson, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Juarawee Kittisilpa and Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok Writing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan. Editing by Robert Birsel and Angus MacSwan Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
