For the second weekend in a row, U.S. President George W. Bush will sit down with world leaders to work on a common approach to the global financial crisis.
When the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation convenes Saturday and Sunday in Lima, the White House hopes to generate more support for the ongoing effort to reform international financial regulations and eliminate barriers to trade.
Nine APEC members participated in last week's emergency Group of 20 summit in Washington. This weekend in Lima, the rest could sign on to the G20's broad call for stronger oversight of financial markets and rejection of protectionism, a move the White House says would be significant.
"It's actually a pretty big deal to have the...remaining 12 APEC members subscribe to those principles," said Dan Price, assistant to the president for international economic affairs and the administration's point man for the APEC summit.
In what is almost certain to be the final overseas trip of his presidency, Bush leaves Washington Friday for Lima. Far from a foreign-policy victory lap, though, the two-night trip will focus on the drive to keep the economic slump from deepening and revive momentum for stalled global trade talks.
"There's an effort by those that were at the table in G-20 to broaden the support for the statement that came out of the G20 meeting last weekend, which I think will be important," said Charles Freeman, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs. "I don't foresee too many people pushing back on that."
The APEC economies account for more than half of the world's gross domestic product, and nearly two-thirds of U.S. goods trade. While the goal of an Asia-Pacific-wide free trade area appears far off, the White House is looking for APEC to support its goal of reaching an agreement on the modalities - which set out deals on manufacturing, agriculture and services trade - for the Doha trade talks by year-end.
Freeman was skeptical the leaders could make much progress on Doha.
"I find it difficult to believe that we'll actually get done with Doha by the end of this year, particularly since neither India nor Brazil nor the E.U. will be in Lima," he said.
In addition to the big issues of trade and regulation, Price said a number of smaller initiatives will be in focus this weekend, including moves to reduce trade-related transaction costs and achieve universal broadband access in the APEC region by 2015. He said APEC also will expand participation in a pilot program to prevent threats to the food supply.
On the sidelines of the summit, Bush will hold one-on-one meetings with a host of leaders, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, whose relationship with the White House has been fragile.
The details of the meeting are still being hammered out, but National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that Bush and Medvedev would likely discuss Russia's conflict with Georgia and the U.S.'s effort to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Both are major sources of tension between Washington and Moscow.
"There's a few areas where we have some disagreements," Johndroe said. "We have some issues that we're going to need to work through."
Johndroe said Bush also will meet in Lima with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Peruvian President Alan Garcia.
On the table for Bush's sit-down with Hu: the global financial crisis, Doha, the drive to denuclearize North Korea and the statement of human rights and religious freedom in China.
North Korea will also be the focus of Bush's meetings with Aso and Lee.
The White House's Price dismissed the notion that Bush's lame-duck status and low approval rating will affect his participation in the summit, saying the president will continue to be a strong advocate for open markets, accountability, and addressing poverty and disease.
"This is a serious meeting. It is not a farewell," Price said.