By IANS
Sydney : India’s hopes of joining the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) suffered a setback with Australian Prime Minister John Howard Sunday announcing that all new aspirants will have to wait for at least three years to be admitted to the forum.
“We agreed to revisit the issue of membership in 2010,” Howard said at the end of APEC’S annual summit, at which India’s case for accession to the regional grouping was also discussed.
For years India has been eager for the membership of APEC, hoping for an end to a 10-year moratorium on new members from 1997.
Without giving any reason for the exclusion of new members, Howard said, “Leaders also endorsed a number of measures to strengthen and professionalise APEC as an institution.”
While Australia is learnt to have backed India’s entry into APEC, which was set up in 1989, a few Western countries were concerned that its admission would tip the balance of power in the organisation.
The Philippines’ chief trade negotiator Jose Antonio Buencamino said that western members were not opposed to admitting smaller countries such as Panama and Colombia, but drew the line at India.
“Once the Indians come in, the weighting would become heavier in this part of the world,” he said during APEC’s preparatory meetings last week.
Aside from India, other potential APEC candidates include Colombia, Ecuador, Macau, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.