APEC Papua New Guinea 2018


APEC Papua New Guinea 2018 was the year-long hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Papua New Guinea.
It was the first time Papua New Guinea hosted the APEC meetings. Australia provided a quarter to a third of the cost to host the meetings and also helped with logistics and security. Three cruise ships were chartered through an Australian company to cater to the some 10,000 delegates and guests.
Many of the attendees and delegations had previously attended the 2018 East Asia Summit held from 11 November to 15 November in Singapore, hosted by the Chairperson Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore. Thereafter, many of the state leaders, including Prime Minister Lee of Singapore, flew from Singapore to Papua New Guinea.

Events

Economic Leaders' Meeting

Attendees

This was the first APEC meeting for Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, since their inaugurations and appointments on 11 March 2018, 10 May 2018, and 24 August 2018, respectively; Piñera and Mahathir had previously attended multiple APEC meetings in their first term as president and prime minister, respectively. It was also the last APEC meeting for the host Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, following O'Neill's resignation.
Five presidents did not attend the summit – Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra, Russian President Vladimir Putin, United States President Donald Trump, and Vietnamese President Nguyễn Phú Trọng. Peña Nieto was represented by Mexican Under Secretary of Foreign Trade Juan Carlos Baker, while Vizcarra sent Peruvian Foreign Minister Nestor Popolizio in his place. Putin was represented by former Russian President, now Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, while Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence in his place. Nguyễn Phú Trọng was represented by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

Invited Attendees

Leaders and representatives of Pacific Island nations were invited by Papua New Guinea to attend the "APEC Leaders' Dialogue with Pacific Island Leaders" on 17 November.

Absence of declaration and aftermath

According to Reuters, "the leaders failed to agree on a communique at a summit in Papua New Guinea on Sunday for the first time in their history as deep divisions between the United States and China over trade and investment stymied cooperation." Also according to same article: "O’Neill said that as APEC host, he would release a Chairman’s Statement, though it was not clear when." O'Niell said that the talks broke down over language about the World Trade Organization while Reuters reported that the cause for the impasse was disagreement on portions of the draft communique relating to the WTO which mentioned opposing "unfair trade practices" and reforming the WTO, while another concerned sustainable development.