Inter-regional diplomacy is alive

Regional and inter-regional diplomacy tries to attenuate in 2020 the negative consequences of the dangerous decline of global multilateralism. November 2020 offered in this regard a most significant example.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - a regional economic forum established in 1989 - is again a topic among the top news and comments in mainstream mass-media.

The reasons for this large publicity are explainable by the original fact that the recent November Summit in Kuala Lumpur was the first-ever fully virtual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting (AELM). The personal participation of the presidents of USA, China and Russia has generated a high political and diplomatic visibility to APEC.

APEC's official aim is to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific area by creating greater prosperity for the people of the region, by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration.

APEC is composed of 21 'economies' and its participants are involved in a cooperative process which is predominantly concerned with trade and economic issues, with all participants acting as economic entities. APEC's 21 economies, with their official names in this forum, are: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; Viet Nam.

Australia is a founding participant of APEC, is involved in more than 30 APEC sub-forums and hosted APEC in 2007.APEC partners make up more than 70 per cent of Australia's total trade in goods and services.

In practice, APEC facilitates that goods, services, capital and people move easily across borders. In order to achieve that , APEC participants take inter alia measures to ensure faster customs procedures at borders, more favorable business climates and aligning regulations and standards across the area.

Since its establishment in 1989, APEC is functioning as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum. In diplomatic and legal terms, APEC participants are working on the basis of open dialogue and take decisions by consensus without adopting binding commitments or treaty obligations.

The APEC forum has a permanent secretariat based in Singapore.

The substance

The APEC 2020 ended on November 20 with the adoption of two important documents : the 2020 Kuala Lumpur Declaration and the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040.As the mass-media focused mostly on protocol aspects of the Summit and less on its substance , the two documents deserve a short analysis of their content without entering into details, but respecting their specific terminology.

The first document, - the 2020 Kuala Lumpur Declaration,- is remarkable by its strong accent on APEC's determination to enable the Asia-Pacific region to successfully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.

In the opinion of APEC, COVID-19 is one of the most challenging health and economic crises of our times.

A significant reminder of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration is about the APEC 2020 complex theme formulated as : "Optimising Human Potential towards a Resilient Future of Shared Prosperity. Pivot. Prioritise. Progress. APEC aligned its efforts along the priorities of: Improving the Narrative of Trade and Investment; Inclusive Economic Participation through Digital Economy and Technology; and Driving Innovative Sustainability".

The major part of the Declaration is dedicated to combatting and mitigating the impacts of COVID-19.In practical terms, APEC reaffirmed the need to cooperate constructively on COVID-19 including the research and development, production, manufacturing and distribution of diagnostic tests, essential medical products and services, therapeutics and vaccines.

APEC highlighted in this context the importance of facilitating equitable access to safe, quality, effective and affordable vaccines and other medical counter-measures that are vital to safeguard people's health and well-being, while incentivising innovation.

It was also acknowledged that the role of extensive immunisation against COVID-19 is critical in order to bring the pandemic to an end.

From the perspective of multilateralism , it should be mentioned in particular the collective commitment of APEC to support the on-going work at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including through its necessary reform aimed to improve its functioning.

For obvious reasons, the topic about inclusive economic participation through digital economy and technology could not be absent from the Declaration. In this regard, it is necessary to signal the collective commitment to foster an enabling environment for the development of the digital economy, as well as to promote economic policies and growth that support global efforts to tackle climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters, and strengthen emergency preparedness.

An attentive reading of the declaration reveals the fact that the United Nations and the World Health Organisation are never mentioned by their name in the text, in spite of the generally recognized role of these institutions in fighting COVID-19. While citing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the sponsoring world organisation, which is the UN, is absent from the official name of this programme, as quoted in the Declaration.

The second document officially entitled APEC Putrajava Vision 2040 starts with the important reminder that "Our Vision is an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040, for the prosperity of all our people and future generations".How to achieve this objective ?

The short answer is: "Remaining committed to APEC's mission and its voluntary, non-binding and consensus-building principles".For doing that, the following three drivers are enumerated: Trade and Investment;Innovation and Digitalisation;Strong, Balanced, Secure, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth.

In more specific terms, APEC wishes "[t]o ensure that the Asia-Pacific remains the world's most dynamic and interconnected regional economy…. and will continue to work together to deliver, a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent and predictable trade and investment environment".

In addition, APEC "will pursue structural reforms and sound economic policies to promote innovation as well as improve productivity" and APEC partners will "strengthen digital infrastructure, accelerate digital transformation, narrow the digital divide, as well as cooperate on facilitating the flow of data and strengthening consumer and business trust in digital transactions".

Moreover, APEC participants will "ensure that the Asia-Pacific region is resilient to shocks, crises, pandemics and other emergencies "

Perspectives

The final paragraphs of the document APEC Putrajava Vision 2040 are proofs of an optimistically oriented forum.

They contain the firm APEC commitment "to foster quality growth that brings palpable benefits and greater health and wellbeing to all." APEC is ready "to promote economic policies, cooperation and growth which support global efforts to comprehensively address all environmental challenges, including climate change, extreme weather and natural disasters, for a sustainable planet".

The fundamental objective of this original diplomatic forum is clearly formulated and deserves to be cited in extenso. It is "To maintain APEC's unique position as the premier forum for regional economic cooperation as well as a modern, efficient and effective incubator of ideas… to embrace continuous improvement of APEC as an institution through good governance and stakeholder engagements."It will work"with a spirit of equal partnership, shared responsibility, mutual respect, common interest, and common benefit". For that purpose, APEC "will achieve the Vision by 2040, with an appropriate implementation plan and review of its progress".

The first diplomatic assessmentof this optimistic Vision will take place in New Zealand, an "economy" who will host and chair the APEC Summit 2021.

While preparing for this event it should not be forgotten thatmultilateralism serves to bind powerful nations, discourage unilateralism and gives small powers a voice and influence that they could not otherwise exercise on the world arena.