Countries attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok on Friday agreed “to adopt more balanced and inclusive trade and economic policies.”
Thailand's Prayuth earlier urged participants at the summit to seek sustainable growth and development after economic and social challenges from COVID, climate change and geopolitical rivalries.
"We can no longer live like we did. We need to adjust our perspective, ways of life and ways of doing business," he said.
The APEC gathering is the third summit in the region in the past week. A Southeast Asian summit that included China, Japan and the United States was held in Cambodia while the Group of 20 (G20) nations met on the Indonesian island of Bali.
“We will continue our efforts to keep supply chains functioning, secure and resilient. We will continue to work to ensure a level playing field to foster a favorable trade and investment environment and reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and to address supply chain disruptions,” Friday’s closing statement said.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy –- constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks.”
“There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions."
It noted that APEC “is not the forum to resolve security issues," but acknowledged “security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy."
At a business conference on the sidelines of APEC, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to confrontation, both in Ukraine and also in Asia, where he said friction between the biggest economies, the US and China, was forcing countries to take sides.
“There is no stability or peace except one based on international order and respect," said Macron, who was invited to the APEC summit as a guest by the host country, Thailand.
