PACIFIC SIGNALS

The picturesque island of Bali in Indonesia, which is famous for its spas, temporarily became the business capital of the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). The reason is the summit of APEC (Asia -Pacific Economic Cooperation), which was held here and brought together the leaders of 21 states.

In Bali, on sore points

The member countries of the forum, set up in 1989, are considered to be "economies" because it (APEC) includes "disputed territories" such as Taiwan and Hong Kong. The APEC economies, representing about 40% of the world's population, account for 57 % of world GDP and 48 % of the international trade turnover. However, the participation in the forum of such different countries in terms of their role in the world's economic and political affairs as the US and Brunei, Russia and Papua - New Guinea, China and Peru, determines not only the high level of international interest in APEC, but also the significant contrast in the approaches of the forum participants to a number of fundamental problems of regional life.

Experts are almost unanimous in the opinion that the immediate future of peace, stability and economic progress in the Asia-Pacific region will largely depend on the development of the dialogue between the US and China. Hence, the special interest in the US-backed idea of concluding a free trade agreement in the Asia Pacific region. This American initiative, which is officially known as the creation of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is supported by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. However, unlike Washington, many of these countries are not ready to sign the agreement this year.

It was expected that Bali would be visited by US President Barack Obama, but he cancelled the trip because of the budget crisis in his country. Therefore, the United States was represented at the summit by Secretary of State by John Kerry. By the way, Obama refused to participate in an APEC summit for the second time in a row. A year ago, when the forum was hosted by Russian Vladivostok, the American leader was hampered by the election campaign in the United States.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin took an active part in the Bali forum (he even became one of the heroes of the summit, receiving warm congratulations from his counterparts on his birthday - 7 October). Russia, unlike the US, promotes the initiative of greater integration in APEC, linking it to integration processes in post-Soviet area. At the last APEC summit, Putin announced new ideas on Asian cooperation for the first time, pointing to the need for the development of the Eurasian vector of integration, namely the convergence of APEC economies with the European Union through the Common Economic Space (CES) and the Customs Union (CU), in which the main players are Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. At the Bali summit, the Russian leader once again tried to shift attention away from the US idea of establishing TPP to the benefits of the Eurasian integration route. In particular, he recalled that the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space are working well in accordance with WTO principles and contribute to the strengthening of the multilateral trading system.

Another aspect of the Russian approach is the emphasis on the social dimension of integration. Putin said that the economic policy of the state should be closely linked with the solution of social problems and that "it is important to ensure the sources of funding, investment and make the distribution of the risks more equitable".

The social idea found an important place in the final documents of the Bali summit - APEC Leaders' Declaration and the Statement on Supporting the Multilateral Trading System. The summit participants endorsed the "steady growth on a fair basis", improvements in the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, increasing regional partnership to create better and more productive jobs, reducing poverty and improving living conditions.

However, the leitmotif of the final documents of the summit was the idea of establishing an Asia-Pacific free trade zone (which, however, does not negate the intent of the member states of the Trans-Pacific project to develop integration in a limited range). The Bali declaration notes that in order to establish the Asia-Pacific free trade zone, the commitments to curtail the existing protectionist measures that impede trade will be renewed by the end of 2016.

The liberal component of the documents was reflected in the intention of the APEC countries to establish a sub-fund under the APEC foundation to promote trade and investment liberalization.

If the economic issues agreed at the Bali summit are focused on the implementation of short-term and foreseeable prospects, the discussion of a number of pressing international issues at the forum mattered, as they say, "here and now". And the first of the first of these questions is, of course, the Syrian crisis.

Geneva-2 is getting closer

On the sidelines of the summit, the Syrian issue was discussed by the Russian and American sides. Vladimir Putin made a symbolic overture towards Barack Obama, who was not present in Bali, noting that the US president's decision to abandon military strikes on Syria "made it possible not only to bring positions closer together, but also to avoid a tragedy".

Another meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also important in the context of the Syrian settlement. According to Kerry, his meeting with Lavrov in Bali was one of the most productive meetings in the recent period. Yet it is the significant softening of the US position that made it possible to raise the negotiation process on Syria to a new level. In this sense, the American side's confirmation that a military scenario is unacceptable in the Syrian conflict resolution is noteworthy. It is even more remarkable that the United States de facto recognized the danger of extremist groups emerging as an alternative opposition faction in Syria. "Extremist actions of any nature are also unacceptable regardless of the status of specific forces," Kerry stated.

Thus, the United States came significantly closer to the Russian position on this issue, which consists in the inadmissibility of supporting terrorist and extremist organizations fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad. Perhaps we can talk about the unanimity of Washington and Moscow on another extremely important aspect of the issue - on the implementation of the agreement to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control. The tone of this unanimity was set on the eve of the Bali summit when the US state secretary noted that the beginning of the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria is a "good start" and even praised Damascus for compliance with the recently adopted UN resolution on the elimination of its chemical arsenal. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed confidence that the Syrian leadership's impeccable cooperation with UN experts on chemical disarmament will remain such in the future.

The recent progress in the Syrian settlement increases the likelihood of the Geneva-2 international conference in the very near future. In any case, the United States and Russia are planning to convene it in the middle of November. The main problem is the reluctance of the Syrian opposition to negotiate with the Asad government. Lavrov urged the Syrian National Opposition Coalition to "speak in one voice", thus condemning the situation where the rebel leader first makes a statement about participation in Geneva 2, but his supporters then deny this approach.

Talking about some rapprochement between Russia and the United States in the "Syrian issue", we should note another event concerning the prospects of Russian-American cooperation in ensuring global security. In Bali, Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry signed an accord amending the 1987 agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States on the establishment of centres to reduce the nuclear danger. The accord modifies the mechanism of interaction for the implementation of agreements in the field of arms control. But what is also important is that the two powers confirmed their willingness to further close cooperation in order to strengthen international security in general. And this can be considered another good signal to the world community from Bali.