Bangkok: Threats to peace and stability burst onto the agenda at a summit of Pacific Rim leaders Friday in Bangkok after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese territorial waters.
The missile test was a stark reminder of persisting risks of conflict in the region and beyond, on top of frictions between the big powers that threaten to unravel the global order.
US-Vice President Kamala Harris and the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand convened an emergency meeting on the missile launch. "This conduct by North Korea most recently is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security resolutions. It destabilizes security in the region, and unnecessarily raises tensions," Harris said, according to a draft transcript of her remarks.
"We strongly condemn these actions and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilizing acts," she said. North Korea is under United Nations sanctions for past weapons displays but has not faced fresh sanctions this year because US attempts were opposed by China and Russia in the Security Council.
A Thai government spokesperson said leaders also expressed concern about the missile in Friday morning's closed-door meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
The 21-member APEC's long-term mission is promoting closer economic ties but its summits often are sidetracked by other, more urgent issues.
"Geopolitical tensions are detracting from peace and stability and undermining the rules-based international order, which we all agree are essential," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the opening session of the meeting.
"The circumstances we face today as economic leaders, multiple overlapping global crises, could not be more pressing as they inundate our region," Albanese said. At the meeting, leaders appealed for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine and considered strategies for nursing along economic recoveries from the coronavirus pandemic while contending with food and energy crises, the need to cut the carbon emissions that cause climate change and other urgent tasks.