• Ukraine elections : APEC Ukraine elections : APEC By Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, Denmark, – November 24, 2004 Something seems to indicate that Viktor Yushchenko had a reason to be angry when he organized a mass demonstration in Kiev to
• Ukraine elections : APEC
Ukraine elections : APEC
By Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, Denmark, – November 24, 2004
Something seems to indicate that Viktor Yushchenko had a reason to be angry when he organized a mass demonstration in Kiev to protest what he called a coup in Ukraine.
And what’s worse is that democracy has suffered another defeat in a country that lies east of the European Union. …
It does not bode well for the region either that its only superpower is Russia where President Vladimir Putin grabs more and more power, and where political opponents experience more and more difficulties, not to mention outright harassment.
It is important that the rest of the world — especially the EU and other European political institutions — make it clear that these developments to the east are going the wrong way.
Countries like Ukraine must understand that democratic reforms come first if they want to move closer to the rest of Europe with all the advantages that follow. Not the other way around.
The Straits Times, Singapore, November 24, 2004
The Santiago summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum has ended. Few specifics emerged, but that is not the chief value of these annual gatherings. Above all, they provide a convenient opportunity for the leaders of 21 member economies surrounding the Pacific Ocean to meet. APEC summits, despite the ‘economic’ in the grouping’s name, have become as much political as economic affairs. In recent years, APEC leaders have wrestled with the problems posed by terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and this year they turned to North Korea’s nuclear program.
But as important as are these political issues, APEC should not lose sight of its fundamental economic raison d’être. In 1994, the leaders at their Bogor (Indonesia) summit set the goal of establishing free trade among the developed countries of the grouping by 2010, and among developing nations by 2020. But since then, little progress has been made. As Singapore’s Mr. Lee told his fellow summiteers, it is perhaps time to consider an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement, building upon the network of bilateral and regional FTAs that have already emerged in the region. In the long term, nothing would contribute as much to regional political stability as a steady advance toward regional economic integration.
