US President Barack Obama, world leaders arrive in China to attend APEC summit

BEIJING: China is all set to kick off APEC summit, one of the biggest collection of world leaders, here tomorrow to discuss a host of global issues like rise of ISIS, US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and Ukrainian crisis, besides a road map for Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a host of leaders of the region besides top WTO officials have arrived here to take part in the meeting.

India is not a member of APEC, a bloc largely comprised of the countries of the Pacific region.

It is to be seen whether the APEC which specialised in trade and commerce would consider admitting new members as a ban in this regard had been lifted in 2010.

Image conscious China has spent billions of dollars to spruce up pollution ridden Beijing into a brand new city to bath in the autumn sun by creating a new smog free atmosphere for the conference to be attended by leaders of 21 members Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

Hundreds of factories in the city and vicinity have been closed down to ensure smog free weather in the city.

The 22nd summit of APEC will be held at Yanqi Lake, about 50 km north east of Beijing, where China has built a special conference centre, a waterfront boutique hotel and 12 VIP villas on an islet besides the newly opened Sunrise Kempinski hotel nearby.

This is the largest event being hosted by China after the 2008 Olympics.

While not much is expected out of the summit due to the strategic rivalry between US, its allies and China, it has already achieved certain political breakthrough specially in ending a two-year long China-Japan spat over the disputed islands in the East China Sea.