Russia will host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vladivostok in the fall of 2012. This may seem a long way off, but Russia must start planning for this difficult undertaking right away, as the host country presides over the work of APEC’s 21 member states – from the United States to Brunei – in the year leading up to the annual summit.
Building hotels and bridges in Vladivostok to prepare for the summit is by no means easy work. The greater challenge, however, will be Russia’s responsibility to set the theme for APEC once it takes the reins from the United States, who will host the 2011 forum in Hawaii. There is more to setting a theme than coming up with a catchy slogan. In fact, Russia may have to revamp a significant part of its foreign policy.
America wants free trade
Russia does not even have a full year, but rather 11 months, to accomplish the task. The annual week-long APEC forum, which ends with a summit attended by presidents and prime ministers, usually begins in November, and sometimes as early as October. At a meeting of the APEC Senior Officials in Honolulu on December 12, not long after the 2010 summit in Yokohama ended, the United States announced its theme for 2011: Creating a seamless economy in the Asia-Pacific region by strengthening regional integration and expanding trade, promoting a green economy and better coordinating trade regulations.
These are not the most captivating bullet points but there is still time to polish them up and make them more memorable. What they boil down to is clear – free trade. The theme is a logical choice – one that complements America’s work in APEC over the past few years. The United States needs to boost export to countries that are skilled at protecting their markets. In the past few years, the United States has been suffering from a trade deficit because exporters like Japan and China, to name a few, know how to subtly close off their markets to foreign countries. But APEC offers the United States a chance to change the rules. APEC, after all, is all about economic cooperation. Politics don’t enter into the equation.
Other host countries have pursued different agendas. Japan, which presided over APEC in 2010, focused on “human security” as a means to boost growth. Other past themes include integrating indigenous peoples and tribes into the Asia-Pacific economy. This is to be expected in an organization whose members include Indonesia, Peru and other countries with tribal populations.
The theme should be both meaningful to the presiding country and acceptable and interesting to the other member states.
After announcing a theme, the presiding country usually hosts at least 30 meetings that include most APEC member states. These are primarily meetings of ministers from member states as well as commissions and subcommissions on IT, tourism, fishing and a myriad of other issues. The presiding country has to lead each discussion.
Unlike the EU, for example, APEC is entirely voluntary. There are no set standards, and yet it is more efficient and effective than the EU. APEC is a powerful machine that runs all year round. The year-end summit, which Russia will host in Vladivostok in the fall of 2012, is a ceremonial wrap-up after a year of hard work. Still, hosting the ceremony requires a great deal of effort.
A backward policy
It is no secret that the Russian government and independent experts have already begun the search for APEC’s theme in 2012. Already the process has yielded some surprises.
Russia has been pursuing the same set of initiatives since it joined APEC in 1998, not unlike its neighbors in the organization. Its focus has been on natural disaster relief, counter-terrorism, regional security, and the idea of Russia as a transportation bridge between Europe and Asia. Mikhail Gorbachev outlined these priorities in a speech in Vladivostok back in 1986, and they have changed little since.
The 2012 APEC summit in Vladivostok is an opportunity for Russia to reflect on which of these initiatives actually yield results and which are met with a blank stare from our partners.
I, for one, would like to know why Russia is incapable of launching successful Europe-Asia transportation projects when other countries have. For example, China is successfully reviving the Silk Road across Central Asia.
Russia’s perennial proposal to bolster regional security is essentially irrelevant. APEC, in this respect, is more like the EU than NATO – its purpose is to create a common economic space. Improved security couldn’t hurt, but APEC is not the appropriate venue to pursue it. The ASEAN Regional Forum already deals with security matters in the region.
The problem of Russia’s Far East
For over 20 years, Moscow has been saying that APEC is a tool to develop Siberia and Russia’s Far East. The government took a step toward realizing this plan by choosing Vladivostok as the host city for the APEC summit.
But the time has come for Russia to rethink its approach to APEC in light of how much the world has changed over these 20 years. For example, APEC now includes the United States and Canada, only half of whose territory lies in the Asia-Pacific region. But nobody in America thinks that APEC is a tool to develop the West Coast, say, California, or that the EU is a tool to develop the East Coast.
For all major countries, the Asia-Pacific region has become a matter of survival – if you are successful in APEC, your future is secure. All countries, including Russia, go to China and neighboring countries to compete for deals. And Russia, it must be acknowledged, continues to play a secondary role in APEC and the Asia-Pacific region at large.
Perhaps the time has come for Russia to think of its Asia-Pacific strategy as something more than a means to achieving local ends. The strategy should be to ensure that Russia as a whole, rather than its eastern part, does not fall behind in this new era dominated by the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, investments from the region more often go to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other locations in western Russia. Again, there is much food for thought here.
It would be naïve to believe that Moscow will completely reinvent its Asia-Pacific policy in the few months of 2011. More likely, 2011 and Russia’s time presiding over APEC in 2012 will get the ball rolling. It will take several more years for Russia to revamp its Asia-Pacific policy.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
