THE core reality of the twenty-first-century is that the Asia-Pacific region comprises a group of rapidly growing and globalizing economies. The region accounts for some 60 percent of global total output. Economically speaking, where Asia goes in the future, the world will follow. Despite prevailing the legacies of major civilizations, diverse religions and cultures, provider of maximum amounts of raw materials and first source of fossil fuels, skilled and unskilled human and intellectual resources, the continent was colonized by Europe for many years also has been dominated by the US since the last century. The possibility of the rise of the region is indomitable and the process started when China overtakes the US economy. As a nation between South Asia and South East Asia regions and strong diplomatic histories with Japan, China and Australia, Bangladesh could be associated with the development caravan, if the Look East policy gets momentum.
APEC, an Australian diplomatic initiative as an exclusively economic forum, consists of 21 Pacific Rim countries, including, the US, Russia, China, Japan and Canada. The recent APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, held in China, aimed at the advancement to next generation measures for enhancing cooperation between the member economies and manifests a new vision for sustainable, inclusive development across the Asia-Pacific. Though, India is not a member country of the economic forum, it strongly maintain ties with the APEC’s member states. Likewise, Bangladesh should try to be a member of the forum, or at least revive the Look East policy, as the world in the coming days will be directed from the epic center South East Asia.
A former Austrian Prime Minister suggested that to avoid the near-inevitability of long-term conflict between the rising China and the established America, both have to close down the trust deficit. For that it is also imperative to advance regional economic integration, promote innovative development, economic reform and growth, and strengthen comprehensive connectivity and infrastructure development. At the same time, it is “constructive” in the sense of identifying areas of sufficient commonality to create new public goods, such as bilateral investment treaties, a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula, and a global agreement on climate change.
By resolving the territorial disputes between Russia and Japan, China and Korea, and China and Japan; and conflicting maritime claims in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the continent will easily take over the control of the driving seat of the global economy and politics. Moreover, the long-standing border disputes between China and India, India and Pakistan, rifts in Korean Peninsula should be settled to gain the fruits of rapid globalization of Asia with the maintenance of regional integrity and confidence building.
While the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly transforming the economic structure as a preparation to lead the next world, we feel that Bangladesh should take appropriate diplomatic moves to harness the benefits of the developments the APEC plans to attain in the coming future.
