APEC summit 2014

The 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in China this year. Before the commencement of the APEC summit, Chinese authorities were scrambling to clean up the city. The number of cars that could be driven in the city was cut to the tune of half of what it could be before. The heavily polluted cities were quickly cleaned up.

China wanted to show to the world that it is capable and powerful nation. After all, the first day of the APEC summit would see top leaders from around the world descend on the vibrant city of Beijing with their press delegates. China definitely wanted to put up a good show.

Given the current volatile situation basically centered in the Asia Pacific region of the globe, the APEC summit was also seen as an important summit for leaders who were willing to repair and alleviate simmering tensions between their countries. The relations between China and Japan has reached new lows, mainly due to the East China Sea dispute as well as Japan's aggressive military past. The visits by Japan leaders to the controversial Yasukuni War Shrine drew flak from neighbours including South Korea and China. Japan- China relations definitely cannot be strained any further.

The meetings between Shinzo Abe and Xi Jinping was a rather uneasy and uncomfortable one. The handshake between the two was evidently expressionless and even awkward. Nevertheless, it was a golden opportunity for both leaders to restore the already strained ties between both nations.

For a very short span of time, I must say that the APEC summit has definitely been effective and efficient. To a certain extent, we could say that some headway was made in improving Sino-Japanese ties. Barack Obama also got to reaffirm his stance and support for China's rise as a superpower.
Given that some summits in the past concluded with no more than just fruitless discussion ( G20 summit 2013), APEC summit 2014 was definitely successful.

Summits will only occur once in a while. Ultimately, bilateral relations between nations can only improve if compromises are made between the governments!

~Another Opinion