Bush takes campaign to APEC

Cox News Service

WASHINGTON — With his country bombing Afghanistan and battling a national Anthrax scare, President Bush departs today on a six-day journey to Shanghai, where he’ll meet with his counterparts from China, Russia, Japan and 17 other Asia-Pacific nations.

Far from leaving his anti-terrorism campaign behind, however, Bush is taking it with him.

If past summits of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, have centered on ways to slash trade barriers and press for economic reforms, this one will have just one agenda item for Bush: fighting terrorism.

"That is going to be the number one priority, there’s no question about that," said Lawrence Greenwood, the U.S. coordinator for APEC.

In its aim to promote promote exchanges of anti-terrorist intelligence with China, Bush is considering a waiver on sanctions imposed after the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators that bar the sale of military-related equipment to Chinese security forces, government sources said Tuesday.

Beyond the anti-terror campaign, Bush has begun in recent weeks to outline his vision of a post-Taliban Afghanistan, calling for a long-term program of humanitarian and development aid to be administered by the United Nations with financial assistance from the world community.

He’ll be discussing that as well with his APEC partners, who will conclude their summit with a joint statement on a common way forward in the global war on terror.

Bush arrives Thursday night in Shanghai, where he’ll meet with his APEC counterparts at the mouth of the Yangtze River. He’s slated to return Monday.

The APEC meeting Saturday and Sunday will be the first international summit for Bush since the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes and the first occasion for him to appear on the world stage as the leader of a global coalition to battle terrorism.

It will also be Bush’s first trip to Asia as president.

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