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East Asia summit ends with Japan-China handshake

East Asia summit ends with Japan-China handshake East Asia’s first summit of leaders ended on Wednesday with an agreement to hold annual talks on strategic issues such as trade and security — and a rare handshake between the leaders of Japan and China. The gesture, after months of feuding between Asia’s two biggest economies over their wartime past, came after 16 leaders signed a declaration calling for annual talks on issues that also included health scares such as bird flu and energy security. “We have all agreed that East Asian community will be a reality in the future,” Malaysian Prime Minister

Iran, N.Korea nuclear crises in view at Asia talks

Iran, N.Korea nuclear crises in view at Asia talks Asias foreign policy heavyweights planned behind-the-scenes talks on the nuclear crises over North Korea and Iran as ministers from 28 countries began a meeting on Tuesday nominally devoted to economic cooperation. Host nation Qatar said the Asia Cooperation Dialogue would cover energy, finance, technology, agriculture and tourism. It is going to focus on economic issues, not politics, said Qatari assistant foreign minister Mohammed Abdullah Al Rumaihi. But on the sidelines of the forum, which includes Middle Eastern states and ends on Wednesday, the regions key players were set to discuss the international

Cracks appear in Asia-Pacific unity on WTO trade talks

Cracks appear in Asia-Pacific unity on WTO trade talks After pointing a collective finger of blame at Europe over farm subsidies, cracks were emerging Sunday in the show of unity by Asia-Pacific leaders on free trade. The 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, whose economies account for some 60 percent of world trade, issued a statement here Saturday demanding deep cuts in European Union farm subsidies. They said that Europe's refusal to make concessions threatened to derail World Trade Organization (WTO) talks scheduled for Hong Kong next month. But by Sunday, Japan had already threatened to break

Clark sees scope for building links with Asia

Clark sees scope for building links with Asia Prime Minister Helen Clark says the East Asian Summit she has just attended in Malaysia could lead to significant regional "community building". New Zealand and Australia attended the summit this year for the first time, invited by the 10 Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) members because of their economic links and contributions to development. Miss Clark said today the summit had presented "tremendous opportunities" for personal contact with the leaders of the Asean nations. She said she held bilateral talks with the leaders of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and several

ONeill eyes Asia, then world

ONeill eyes Asia, then world FOOTBALL Federation Australia has set its sights on hosting the Asian Cup finals in 2011, chief executive John ONeill said yesterday. And the odds are he could still be around to see the move come off. Despite the fact he has played a big role in the turnaround of Australian soccer over the past two-and-a-half years, with his contract due to run out there has been conjecture over ONeills future at FFA. While he has been reluctant to discuss the matter over the past few months, he gave the clearest indication yet that he will be staying