Apec leaders fail to reach agreement

PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea will release a formal closing statement for the regional Apec forum in coming days, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said yesterday, as the 21member body failed to agree on a leaders’ statement for the first time in its history.

In his closing comments to the forum, O’Neill also said the group was trying to ensure ‘‘free and open’’ trade by 2020.

Conflicting visions for the region had made it difficult to draft a summit communique, PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato said earlier, after wide differences between China and the United States dominated the summit.

Competition between the United States and China over the Pacific was thrown into focus as Western allies launched a coordinated response to China’s Belt and Road programme, promising to jointly fund a $US1.7 billion ($NZ2.47 billion) electrification and internet project in Papua New Guinea.

Apec host PNG is home to 8 million people, fourfifths of whom live outside urban areas and with poor infrastructure.

The plan by the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to provide electricity and internet to much of PNG would be the first step in a project to counter China’s Belt and Road spending and political influence in the region.

But China had some success, Tonga signing up to the Belt and Road and getting a fiveyear deferral on a concessional loan just before it was due to commence principal repayments.

US Vicepresident Mike Pence, as he left the PNG capital, Port Moresby, listed US differences with China, a day after he directly criticised its Belt and Road programme.

‘‘They begin with trade prac tices, with tariffs and quotas, forced technology transfers, the theft of intellectual property. It goes beyond that to freedom of navigation in the seas, concerns about human rights,’’ he told reporters.

Differences over trade made it difficult to draft a summit communique that members would sign, and Chinese officials were rebuffed in an attempt to meet PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato on the issue. Pato said they had not made ‘‘necessary arrangements’’ for a meeting.

He said the multilateral trade system was the sticking point in drafting the communique.

At a Pacific Islands Forum in September, there was a similar dispute when China’s envoy demanded to be allowed to address the forum before the prime minister of Tuvalu.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who arrived in Port Moresby on Thursday, stoked Western concern on Friday when he held a meeting with Pacific island leaders in which he pitched the Belt and Road initiative.

On Saturday, Pence took direct aim at Belt and Road, saying countries should not accept debt that compromised their sovereignty.

China’s Foreign Ministry responded by saying no developing country would fall into a debt trap simply because of its cooperation with Beijing.

‘‘On the contrary, cooperating with China helps these countries raise independent development capabilities and levels, and improves the lives of the local people,’’ ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Pato said his country did not need to pick sides.

‘‘For us, we welcome Chinese investment, we welcome US investment. Our foreign policy is to be friends of all, enemies of none.’’ — Reuters

❛ They begin with trade practices, with tariffs and quotas . . . It

goes beyond that to freedom of navigation in the seas, concerns about human rights