PM not going for weekend Apec summit
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has cancelled her plan to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in Hawaii this weekend but will attend the Asean Summit in Bali next week.
“The country badly needs everybody to help solve the problem now and I have informed [Apec leaders] that I will not be joining the event,” Yingluck told reporters.
The country, notably Bangkok, has been inundated for weeks with more than 300 dead and millions affected and displaced. Yingluck’s government has come under heavy criticism for its failure in coping with the disaster.
Leaders from 21 economies across Asia and the Pacific will gather in Honolulu on November 12-13 to discuss various economic matters, including the US economic crisis.
The US is looking forward to propose green growth and innovation during the Apec Summit and would also try to push free-trade pacts with many partners in the Pacific-rim states to help restore its economy and boost growth.
Washington would likely persuade other economies in the Pacific to lower tariffs on environment friendly goods.
Yingluck said she would dispatch her deputy and Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong to attend the Apec Smmit.
Besides her bilateral visits to neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, Yingluck has not had a chance to attend any international forum.
The massive flooding at home since taking office has forced Thailand’s first female prime minister to cancel many foreign trips, including her planned introductory visits to Malaysia, Singapore and China last month.
However, the prime minister is scheduled to attend the Asean Summit in Indonesia’s Bali next week. “I have not cancelled my attendance at the Asean Summit. I should go because this is an Asean forum,” she said.
If Yingluck attends the Asean Summit in Bali, she would have a chance to meet some world leaders, including US President Barack Obama as the US-Asean Summit will also be held there.
Besides Asean leaders, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea would also be attending the East Asia Summit.
