Preview of APEC Meeting

The twenty-one member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum will hold their fourteenth annual meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, at the end of October. Economic ministers will meet on October 23-24, followed by a meeting of the national leaders on October 26-27. The nations of the Pacific Rim meet at a time of uncertainty in the world economy, primarily because slow growth in the United States is contributing to slow recovery throughout the region. Terrorism is also likely to be discussed. And the revelations that North Korea has secretly continued its nuclear program may dominate the discussion.

Between the two APEC meetings, Chinese President Jiang Zemin will meet President Bush at Mr. Bush’s Crawford ranch. The two presidents will likely review bilateral cooperation on issues such as counterterrorism, the Korean peninsula, and nonproliferation, as well as their divergent approaches to the problem of Iraq. This summit, their third in a year, comes only two weeks before the Chinese Communist Party convenes its 16th Party Congress, at which it will be revealed what leadership positions, if any, Jiang will retain.