APEC seeks growth boost despite politics, tensions - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Asia and Pacific leaders meeting in the Russian seaport of Vladivostok this weekend urgently need to push ahead with their agenda for freer trade. Faltering vital signs in China and elsewhere suggest the global recovery may depend on it.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum aims to foster growth by dismantling barriers and bottlenecks that slow trade and business, while nurturing closer economic ties. But election-year politics and territorial spats are weakening the resolve of its 22 members to put aside differences for the sake of regional vitality.

Given its status as an organization governed by consensus, APEC is not known for major policy breakthroughs.

This year is particularly challenging: From the Kuril islands to the northeast of Vladivostok all the way to the Spratlys in the South China Sea, various neighbors are squabbling over territories at a time when they most need to be focused on promoting growth.

South Korea is feuding with Japan, Japan with China, China with many of its Southeast Asian neighbors. With elections due soon in South Korea and Japan, and a once-in-a-decade change in the Communist Party leadership pending in China, lame-duck leaders facing nationalist pressures at home have little room for amicably resolving the disputes.

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