Bush takes financial reform agenda to APEC forum

[Dover]

Source: Reuters

David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - George W. Bush makes his last scheduled trip abroad as U.S. president on Friday, heading to an Asia-Pacific summit where he will seek support for global financial reform and hold talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Experts said the meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, was unlikely to produce any major breakthroughs, but U.S. officials rejected characterization of the session as a swan song for a lame-duck president with low approval ratings.

"This is a serious meeting," said Daniel Price, Bush's adviser on international economic affairs, noting that the president's long advocacy of free trade and open markets meshed well with APEC's core mission. "I don't think this is a farewell ... but rather an opportunity for the president to continue to carry forward an affirmative agenda."...cont'd





Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AK1JI20081121?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

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Seems to me like the perfect opportunity for the World Court to arrest him.
I don't think anyone would even notice his absence...

[dipsydoodle]

1. "swan song for a lame-duck"

:rofl:

[Dover]

2. With a quack-quack here, and a quack-quack there...n/t

[dipsydoodle]

3. He hasn't got much left

to crow about either. :)

[Judi Lynn]

4. Bush arrives in Peru amid timid protests, tight security

Bush arrives in Peru amid timid protests, tight security
Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:25:24 GMT
DPA

Lima - United States President George W Bush arrived in Peru Friday for the annual meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum amid tight security, but timid protests. The president's Air Force One landed at a military base near Lima's international airport, where he was met by Peruvian Defence Minister Antero Flores Araoz.

The APEC forum is to be Bush's last international summit as US president, before he hands over power to president-elect Barack Obama in January.

Bush made no comments and got into a black limousine that was escorted by a score of SUVs.

~snip~
Meanwhile, on Friday hundreds of activists from various indigenous, student and workers' groups gathered in different areas of Lima to protest Bush's presence in the Peruvian capital. About 1,500 police officers were deployed to keep the situation under control, said police commander Carlos Paz.

Earlier Friday, five university students were arrested in Trujillo, about 550 kilometres north of Lima, as they attempted to paint anti-Bush slogans on walls, Peruvian radio station RPP reported.

Ahead of his trip to Peru, Bush stressed that he has not neglected relations with Latin America. "I care about our Latin American neighbours," he said in an exclusive interview that the Peruvian daily El Comercio published in Spanish on Friday.

"It is very important for a US president to pay attention to its neighbours, because their orderly and peaceful progress is of great interest for the United States.

"I worry when I hear someone talk about the United States as the big boy in the neighbourhood, always telling people what to do in any particular country," he said.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/242789,bush-arrives-in-peru-amid-timid-protests-tight-security--summary.html

[Robbien]

5. Bush only feels safe if he uses a military base to land

and is met by the Defence Minister. Nothing he does is a public ceremony.

[Robbien]

6. APEC leaders pledged a 12-month ban on new trade or investment barriers

and Bush's reaction: "The world would hurtle along a "path to ruin" if it went down the protectionist road." "One of the enduring lessons of the Great Depression is that global protectionism is a path to economic ruin."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24694650-663,00.html